SOUNDS Lyrical, a group of York-based poets and composers, has secured Arts Council funding to stage four concerts and a radio programme.

The concerts will feature newly written poems and musical settings to be performed by classical singers and instrumentalists, with the first planned for the Basement, City Screen, York on September 4 at 8pm, with the remaining three events spread over the following nine months.

"The first show will feature the well loved and respected York poet, Don Walls, who recently released his 6th book of poetry, Somewhere Else, reading of his own work," said a spokesman.

"For music lovers, there will be music by Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, David Bowie and Brian Eno as well as new work by Sounds Lyrical itself. Tickets are £6/£5 and are available now from City Screen."

The funding, in the region of £12,000, is for affiliated poets to write new material and for composers to set them to music and will help pay for the development of a radio programme to demonstrate on a wider scale how new classical song can be accessible and meaningful to a wider audience.

Sounds Lyrical is a group of four poets and four composers, all with strong connections to the City of York, who collaborate to create new poetry and new musical works based on that poetry. For more information, go to www.soundslyricalproject.org.uk.