The major visitors to this year's Sonorities Festival in Belfast (Tuesday, April 27th to Wednesday, May 5th) will be the London Sinfonietta, who give two programmes of mostly British music on Monday, May 3rd, and Tuesday, May 4th writes Michael Dervan. Their opening concert celebrates Jonathan Harvey's 60th birthday with performances of his Death of Life and Bhakti, and the composer will be present to give a talk on his music before the event.

Composers having premieres during the festival include Kevin Volans (whose Double Violin Concerto is in the Sinfonietta's second concert), Ian Wilson (a saxophone concerto, Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?, with Gerard McChrystal and the Ulster Orchestra on Friday, April 30th), Jonty Harrison (whose electro-acoustic Streams is in a late-night slot on Tuesday, May 4th), and Anders Blomquist and Fergus Johnston (whose new percussion pieces will be played by Jonny Axelsson on Thursday, April 29th and Saturday, May 1st). All except Blomquist are scheduled to give talks about their music.