KVU SINGERS are breaking with tradition for their autumn concert in Skipton.

The Sutton-based choir usually presents its audience with a wide range of music, both sacred and secular.

But as the UK prepares to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the award-winning mixed choir has chosen to focus on the Armistice.

KVU conductor Frank Smith said: “Because our concert will take place almost 100 years to the day since the guns fell silent and World War I came to an end, it seems appropriate to dedicate the performance to peace and all those who have worked for peace.”

The core of the concert will be excerpts from ‘The Armed Man’ and ‘The Peacemakers’ both by Karl Jenkins, and ‘Eternal Light’ by Howard Goodall.

In their works the two composers drew on the words of Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, the Christian Mass, the Qur’an and Persian Mysticism.

Frank added: “We hope that the public will find this concert to be enjoyable, uplifting and thought provoking.”

The Armed Man, by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, is subtitled “A Mass for Peace” and was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum for the Millennium celebrations.

It was dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis, and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem before it, is essentially an anti-war piece.

Jenkins combines the Catholic Mass combines with other sources, principally the 15th-century folk song “L’homme armé”.

The concert is on November 3 at 7.30pm at Christ Church in Skipton.

Tickets cost £10, with under-16s free, and can be reserved by calling 01535 653009. Tickets will also be available on the door.