MUSIC by British composers will be performed by the Dutch band De Ereprijs, experimental vocal trio Juice, UK chamber group Gemini and the oboe and percussion duo New Noise at the University of York Spring Festival of New Music.

Running from May 2 to 5, the festival focuses on new and contemporary chamber music, and aims to bring together audiences, composers and performers in an informal atmosphere.

De Ereprijs, from Apeldoorn, near Arnheim, return to York for the first time since 2004, to open the festival performances on May 2 in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, with a 7.30pm programme of offbeat music composed for the former street band's distinctive line-up of wind, brass, percussion and electric guitars.

Edward Jessen's Thype will be played for the first time, alongside works associated most closely with the band by Hanna Kulenty, David Dramm, Joe Cutler and Conlon Nancarrow, plus pieces by British composers Ed Bennett, Anne Meredith and Sam Hayden.

In the state-of the-art Rymer Auditorium on May 3 at 7.30pm, the Juice trio of Kerry Andrew, Sarah Dacey and Anna Snow present works created in collaboration with young British composers.

Noted for performances with a theatrical edge, their music spans the a cappella to the vibrantly multi-media; spiky vocal percussion to growling harmonics; inventive twists on traditional folk songs to occasional violin playing. Film and live electronics play their part, in an evening of pieces by Kerry Andrew, Meredith Monk, Lucy Mulgan, James Lindsay and more besides.

The 60th birthday of Nicola LeFanu, composer and University of York professor, will be marked by Gemini, who have commissioned, recorded, broadcast and performed her music for more than 30 years.

Their 7.30pm programme in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on May 4 comprises three LeFanu works and one each by David Lumsdaine, her husband, Sadie Harrison, one of her outstanding pupils, and Elizabeth Maconchy, her mother, whose centenary falls this year.

Gemini give composers' workshops in the Ryder Auditorium on May 5, from 10am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 4pm, when the ensemble will be working with composers on scores selected from a national call for new pieces. The day ends with an informal performance at 5.30pm; admission is free.

The University Chamber Orchestra and Music Department Vocal Ensembles perform Stephanie Connor's postgraduate commission, Songs From The Shadows And Shade, plus works by fellow postgraduates Marco Visconti-Prasca and Valerie Pearson, in a lunchtime concert at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on May 5 at 1pm.

New Noise, the British duo of Janey Miller on oboe and Joby Burgess on percussion, close the festival that evening at 7.30pm, in the Lyons Concert Hall, where they will be joined by sound/electronics engineer Matt Fairclough for a programme of music by Steve Reich, Iannis Xenakis and Howard Skempton, and the first performance of John Stringer's Drill.

The festival's opening event, the Microtonal Fayre, explores the tricky topic of tuning and microtonality'. Postgraduate researchers, composers and performers take part in a day of short lectures and performances, open debate and an informal workshop of pieces written for this event.

The day runs from 10am to 5pm in the Rymer Auditorium and closes with an early-evening concert of these world premieres.

The festival brochure is available from boxoffice@york.ac.uk For tickets, ring 01904 432439.