HOW many Debussys does it take to make a concert? Ten in the case of York Late Music's Piano Day on Saturday.

To commemorate the centenary of Claude Debussy’s death, James Willshire will play Ten New Debussys at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, at 7.30pm.

To explain further: composer David Power came up with the idea of inviting ten composers to write a new piece based on an original Debussy piano opening, and so ten premieres each will start with a minute of a 20th century Debussy solo piano piece before developing into the composer’s own 21st century sound world for four minutes in a concert topped and tailed with music by the French composer.

Debussy's Clair De Lune, Des Pas Sur La Neige, Reflects Dans L’eau and Les Sons Et Les Parfums Tournent Dans L’air Du Soir will be complemented by world premieres of Late Music commissions by Debussy specialist Robin Holloway, Soundpool co-founder Michael Parkin, rising Irish composer Ailís Ní Ríain, Thomas Simaku and Belize-born Errollyn Wallen.

Then add premieres of new pieces by Late Music artistic director David Lancaster, York composer Nicola LeFanu, Welsh composer and flautist Lynne Plowman, David Power himself and blossoming Chinese composer and pianist Jia Chai, at present a member of the Contemporary Music Research Centre in York.

Saturday's concert also celebrates the 60th birthdays of Simaku and Wallen and the 75th birthday of Holloway, three of the composers commissioned for new works. Holloway will give a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm, when a complimentary glass of wine or juice will be served to concert-goers.

Half of the composers on Saturday are women, in keeping with York Late Music's commitment launched last year to deliver a season featuring 50 per cent female composers and performers.

"We are very excited about our contribution to the centenary events for Debussy," says Late Music concert programmer Steve Crowther. "Along with Stravinksy and only a very few others, Debussy is the soil from which much 20th and 21st century music grew. That being so, the idea of asking a

diverse range of living composers to start with music actually written by Debussy himself and then taking it into their own sound worlds seems both

appropriate and an interesting and unusual compositional challenge. We are greatly looking forward to hearing the results."

Bringing to life the new compositions will be acclaimed interpreter of contemporary music James Willshire, who is involved in the Debussy 2018 project, presenting complete cycles of Debussy’s solo piano music throughout the year across Britain.

The Piano Day will begin with Kate Ledger's Piano Studies, an intriguing concert of studies from various times and places, at the Unitarian Chapel at 1pm.

Richard Rodney Bennett's Five Studies: No. 1, 3 and 5 from the 1960s follow Chopin's Étude Op. 25 No. 7 and Trois Nouvelles êtudes No. 1 to 3 and Debussy's compositions (in the later concert) in combining complex rhythms with striking sonorities.

Ligeti's Fem and En Suspens and Philip Glass's Étude No. 2 bring kaleidoscopic contemplation, while world premieres of a selection of Anthony Adams's Études and Steve Crowther's Etude offer new sounds.

Tickets for Ten New Debussys cost £10, concessions £8, students £3, on the door or in advance from latemusic.org/; tickets for Ledger, £5, concessions £3.

Charles Hutchinson