The Spring Festival of New Music opens in York on Wednesday, showcasing five days of music from jazz to folk, classical to ballet.

Hosted by the University of York Concert Series and run by students, this annual festival is based at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, but stretches out from the university campus to venues around York.

First into action will be the University of York Chamber Orchestra, whose feisty 7.30pm programme at the Lyons features Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s A Mirror Of Whitening Light and British premieres of Mika Pelo’s Cloudy and Hans Werner Henze’s Chamber Concerto.

On Thursday, same place, same time, pianist Joseph Houston and the postgraduate York trio cat·er·waul perform works by György Kurtág, Ligeti, Bill Brooks and the world premiere of Thomas Simaku’s The Flight Of The Eagle.

The festival moves to the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, next Friday at 1pm for the Mountaineering Club Orchestra’s mix of modern minimalist music, electronica and post-rock. Neither strictly classical nor art-rock, York musician Tom Adams’ new project is best described as “widescreen”, and this lunchtime concert will be the orchestra’s debut.

Entitled A Start On Such A Night Is Full Of Promise, Adams’s set of compositions and instrumental music for strings, electronics, guitar, piano and percussion was inspired by the first crossing of Greenland by Fridtjof Nansen and his account of his 1888 expedition.

In another new venture for the festival, the Borders chamber ballet company Ballet Bewegung present a choreographed dance performance of Bartók’s Contrasts, 20th century composer Paul Keenan’s Cloudscapes and Beethoven’s Clarinet Trio at the Lyons next Friday at 7pm.

The Scottish group’s choreographer, Jane Keenan, describes the show as “three heartfelt works to make you smile and think with their fusion of live music and classically-rooted dance with a contemporary voice”.

Later that night, York jazz drummer Dave Smyth brings his trio to the City Screen Basement at 9.30pm. Smyth will be playing alongside regular collaborator Paul Baxter on double bass and special guest Iain Ballamy, from Loose Tubes and Earthworks, on tenor saxophone.

Next Saturday, the innovative Hebrides Ensemble travel south from Scotland for a 7.30pm programme that reflects their close work with the festival’s featured composer, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Interpretations of his Voyage To Fair Isle and String Trio will be complemented by contemporary works by György Kurtág, Nigel Osborne and Judith Weir.

Ahead of the concert, the ensemble will be holding workshops of student compositions as part of the York New Music Exchange weekend on May 14 and 15.

This exchange brings together students, academics, composers and musicians from around Britain to explore new music by young British composers. Free and open to all, the weekend offers the chance to quiz the composers, join a fun experimental choir, attend informal concerts and “discover something new”.

The festival finishes on May 15 with a relaxed 8pm gig by York comedy music duo Bush and McCluskey and Leeds folk-rock duo Echo Town at Pitcher and Piano in Coney Street.

Chris Bush and Ian McCluskey describe themselves as “two comedians, musicians, writers and composers who use humour to compensate for gross personal inadequacies”; Echo Town can be spotted busking around York, playing acoustic and lap slide guitar and a drum kit that utilises a 100-year-old suitcase as a bass drum.

Tickets are available from the university box office, 01904 432439, online at YorkConcerts.co.uk or on the door. For more information on the festival, visit yorkspringfestival.co.uk