FIFTY five men and boys from the parish of St Margaret’s Church, now the Walmgate home of the National Centre for Early Music in York, gave their lives to the Great War.

The 100th anniversary of the outbreak of war is being marked by NCEM in a series of events that will honour the fallen as part of the 2014 York Festival of Ideas, which this year takes the theme of Order and Chaos.

“We wanted to acknowledge that the NCEM building was a parish church for a long time and we have an obligation to those men whose deaths in the First World War are recorded here,” says director Delma Tomlin.

Singer and ukulele player Sara Spade And The Noisy Boys will perform The Great War Centenary Concert on June 14.

That evening Sara, double bass player Jonny Gee, snare drummer Jonny Mattock and parlour guitarist and percussionist Rod Fogg will perform flapper classics such as Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue, Charleston dance numbers and Great War-era favourites Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag, Long Way To Tipperary and Bing! Bang! Bing’em On the Rhine!

Sara will pepper the set with her own retro-swing pop originals, performed in her high-energy uke style with her trio.

In a second Great War recollection, the NCEM will present Trumpeter, What Are You Sounding Now? on June 19.

Curator Chris Green’s theatre company ReStage and Robert Hollingworth’s group The 24 will recall the summer of 1914 when thousands signed up for eagerly awaited war that August. Among them were the aforementioned 55 men and boys that never returned to St Margaret’s parish.

“What inspired them? What did they think they were fighting for? What did they believe they were fighting against?” asks Chris Green. “This centenary tribute uses words, music, images and live action to explore the patriotic and nationalist origins of the war on both sides and differing notions of order and chaos.”

Meanwhile, the NCEM continues its participation in the Making Tracks world music scheme – one of 12 venues to welcome this travelling showcase – by presenting Zimbabwe’s rising stars Mokoomba on April 10 and Debashish Bhattacharya’s Global Adventures On A Slide Guitar on May 17. As a further incentive to investigate these musicians, a buy-one-get-one-free ticket policy operates for these concerts.

The NCEM’s partnership with the University of York music department goes from strength to strength with two cornerstones of the season ahead: the Lieder Day on February 8 and the Baroque Day on May 3.

Mhairi Lawson, soprano, Matthew Brook, bass, Peter Seymour and the University of York Chamber Choir will take part in an annual song day next weekend when the focus will be on the early German art song of CPE Bach, Mozart and Haydn.

Everything That Music Can Express will be the title of the Baroque Day’s activities featuring harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, Compagnia d’Istrumenti and the University of York Baroque Ensemble. In a series of events from 12.30pm to 7pm, they will celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of CPE Bach in the company of his family, his contemporaries and his godfather, Telemann.

Further highlights of the season ahead include jazz guitarist and composer Martin Taylor on March 28; Black Swan Folk Club promotions of Vin Garbutt on April 1 and Irish singer Heidi Talbot with fiddler John McCusker and guitarist Ian Carr on April 14; saxophonist Mark Lockheart’s Ellington In Anticipation, a reworking of Duke Ellington works, on April 25; and folk-singing 2013 Mercury Prize nominee Sam Lee and Friends on May 18.

• Shows start at 7.30pm unless stated otherwise. Box office: 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk