The performance of St Luke Passion by famous Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, 75, will be the highlight of the Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival in Canterbury, south east England on 23 April to 3 May.

Penderecki himself will conduct the National Polish Radio Symhony Orchestra, with Polish soloists, the Camerata Silesia Singers Ensemble from Katowice and the Warsaw Boys Choir. The concert in Canterbury Cathedral will be the second live performance of St Luke Passion in the UK after a lapse of twenty seven years.

The programme of the festival has been unveiled at a press conference at the Schott Publishers in London by its artistic director Paul Max Edlin. He said that Krzysztof Penderecki will be the honorary guest of Sounds New. He will also take part in a three-day conference on Polish music after 1945 organized by the University of East Anglia.

In addition to Penderecki, the featured artists at the Sounds New Festival include the  accordion group Motion Trio and the Silesian String Quartet. (mk)