Modern classical sounds take over Canterbury for nearly a fortnight for the Sounds New contemporary music festival

Britain’s great composers are celebrated in the Sounds New contemporary music festival as a tribute to 2012 and the Olympic Games.

Kicking off with the London Sinfonietta, the festival’s 12-day programme includes Tenebrae, the Arditti Quartet and the King’s Singers.

The theme for this year’s festival is Theme GB and few groups sum up that rousing sense of Britishness more than the Grimethorpe Colliery Band.

Formed in 1917 as a leisure activity for miners, the future looked bleak when the pits were closed in 1992. Yet within five days they won the National Brass Band Championships and soon after gained international fame with the making of the film Brassed Off, starring Pete Postlethwaite and Ewan McGregor.

Their concert at Canterbury Cathedral Quire is on Saturday, May 12.

Another highlight at the cathedral will be Sir John Tavener’s masterpiece, the Veil of the Temple. Sir John will be in the cathedral to hear Tenebrae, one of the world’s greatest choirs, accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble, Canterbury Cathedral Choir and the conductor Nigel Short. A piece with a sustained, moving narrative thread, the Veil... manages to combine the timeless, with a compelling sense of progress. The concert is on Friday, May 11.

The festival opens on Friday, May 4, with the London Sinfonietta, whose programme will feature two winning compositions from this year’s International Composers Pyramid. Before the concert at the Augustine Hall, composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies will talk about his A Mirror of Whitening Light, which will be performed during the evening.

Later in the week, the Arditti Quartet will perform music by Phillip Neil Marin, Thomas Adès, Brian Ferneyhough, Robert Saxton and the world premiere of a piece by Sounds New artistic director Paul Max Edlin, entitled Frida Sketches. They also play Victor Ibarra Crossing Lines, a winning work of this year’s International Composer Pyramid. They perform at Augustine Hall on Bank Holiday Monday.

The King’s Singers, pictured top, round off the festival at the Marlowe Theatre on Tuesday, May 15. One of the world’s most celebrated ensembles, they perform across the globe this year, including Sydney Opera House. They will perform several new commissions, including Paul Patterson’s Timepiece and a new work commissioned for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Other things to watch out for include an opera at Margate’s Turner Contemporary on Thursday, May 10, the BBC Big Band with Norma Winstone and Mike Gibbs at the Gulbenkian Theatre on Saturday, May 5, and an evening with the Julian Joseph Trio at the same venue on Sunday, May 13.

The Sounds New contemporary music festival takes place across Canterbury from Friday, May 4, to Tuesday, May 15. Ticket prices vary. Box office 01227 787787 or visit www.soundsnew.org.uk.