SINGERS are being invited by Salisbury International Arts Festival to audition for the Festival Chorus.

The Chorus is set to play a starring role in a world premiere being held in Salisbury Cathedral during next year's festival.

Provisionally entitled, The Traveller, the piece forms the third of the four-year festival commission, Confluences - a collaborative piece between writer Vikram Seth, composer Alec Roth and violinist Philippe Honoré, Scored for tenor, violin, chorus and orchestra (strings and percussion), the literary and cultural inspiration for the piece is India.

In addition to writing six new poems, Vikram Seth will translate more than 20 Indian texts from a rich variety of sources, traditions and languages, including Sanskrit, Pali, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Tamil.

Taking as its theme the "ages of man", the work will be divided into six main sections and this structure has given rise to the idea of dividing the chorus into age groups with a children's section, youth section, adult section and seniors' section, each singing its appropriate part and joining together for the first and final parts.

Currently conducted by Howard Moody, the Festival Chorus was originally formed to bring together a wide variety of choral singers from across Salisbury and the surrounding area. Performances to date have been at a number of London venues as well as at Salisbury, Cheltenham and Oxford.

In 1998, the Chorus featured on John Surman's Proverbs and Songs, which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

Auditions will be taking place in December and anyone who wishes to become involved is invited to contact Sue Kent by email at sue@salisburyfestival.co.uk or telephone her on Tuesdays only on 01722 331238.