COMPOSER Sir Karl Jenkins will attend York Musical Society and Orchestra's performance of The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace in York Minster tomorrow.

He will be accompanied by Guy Wilson, former Master of the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, who commissioned the Jenkins work to mark the Millennium and who contributed some of the text.

The Armed Man has been performed more than 1,500 times in 30 countries since its premiere, making it the most-performed piece by a living composer.

The original recording has taken up residence in the official classical album charts since its launch 14 years ago: 690 weeks in total. In June, Karl Jenkins was knighted in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his "services to composing and crossing musical genres".

The Armed Man is a powerful, dramatic account of the onset and terrible consequences of war. Set within extracts from the Christian Mass, it draws on sources both musical and textual from other cultures and religions to dwell on martial themes, with a final, hopeful resolution in peace.

Poignantly, its first recording by The National Youth Choir of Great Britain and The National Musicians Symphony Orchestra, was issued the day before the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in September 2001.

Essentially an anti-war piece, The Armed Man has particular resonance during the commemorations of the First World War and this performance comes in the week of Armistice Day.

Tomorrow's 7.30pm programme also includes Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs and The Lark Ascending; David Pipe, York Musical Society's director of music, will conduct and the soloists will be soprano Katie Trethewey, baritone Greg Skidmore and violinist Sophie Lockett.

An audience of more 800 than is expected; tickets are on sale on 0844 939 0015 or at boxoffice.yorkminster.org

Did you know?

York Musical Society is a thriving choral society with 160 members and has contributed to the musical and cultural life of the city of York since 1876.