ON his first solo international tour, American pianist Danny Holt sparks the University of York's Spring Festival of New Music into life on Tuesday with his vibrant showcase Fast Jump.

At 1.30pm, in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, he will be playing new piano music from the United States, Canada and Britain, blurring boundaries as he explores new sounds inspired by minimalism, electro-acoustic music, jazz, rock, pop and non-Western traditions.

This annual festival, held in the university's music department, will present the music of today in a nine-day programme of lunchtime and evening concerts, free events and talks.

One of the best-kept secrets in contemporary jazz, the mellow Italian trumpet player Enrico Rava leads his acoustic quintet in the Lyons Concert Hall on Wednesday at 7.30pm.

The focus then moves to India in the company of composer Judith Weir, storyteller Vayu Naidu and tabla player Sarvar Sabri.

In Music and Storytelling, in the Rymer Auditorium on Thursday at 7pm, they give an insight into the creative process behind their newly devised pieces for ensemble and storyteller, Psyche and Manimekalai, and this re-telling of epic Greek and Tamil myths will be performed with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group next Friday in the Lyons Concert Hall at 7.30pm. Music by Stravinsky and a new work by Howard Skempton, inspired by the nave drawings of Ben Hartley, feature too.

In between these two linked events, the University of York Music Society performs new works by student composers in the Rymer Auditorium next Friday at 1pm.

Links between the university's music department and the California Institute of Arts in Los Angeles are marked with a day of events next Saturday entitled CalArts Day. This opens at 10.30am with a free event in the Rymer Auditorium: the festival lecture by David Rosenboom, Dean of CalArts' School of Music.

Rosenboom's music features in that evening's 7.30pm concert, Zones Of Coherence, alongside works by York composers William Brooks, Nicola LeFanu, Roger Marsh and Daryl Runswick.

The Spring Festival culminates in the third National New Composers' Forum, organised by the Orchestra of Opera North, in the Lyons Concert Hall. Five pieces will be rehearsed on May 10, from 11am to 6pm, and then performed on May 11 at 7.30pm. The rehearsals are open to the public; admission is free.

For more details on the festival, consult www.YorkConcerts.co.uk/

springfestival For tickets, ring 01904 432439 or contact

boxoffice@york.ac.uk

Updated: 15:46 Thursday, April 28, 2005