THE KVU Singers will this month perform the northern premiere of Howard Goodall’s latest major work. Musical director Frank Smith has chosen Goodall’s Invictus: A Passion as the centrepiece of the choir’s annual Spring Concert.

A choir spokesman said: “While the piece follows the traditional path of Christ from Gethsemane to Golgotha, with a final glimpse of the resurrection, it is unusual in that Howard Goodall puts considerable emphasis on the role and perspective of women. Indeed many, though not all, of his sources were written by women.”

Howard Goodall said that with Invictus: A Passion he had set out to write a contemporary setting of the Passion story, feeling the importance of looking at its ideas, its format and its message afresh.

He said: “I couldn’t simply re-run the text or the structure of the majestic 18th century Passion settings of Bach and his contemporaries. I wanted to reflect musically on what this story has to tell us, now.”

Goodall said Passions had traditionally taken excerpts from the Christian gospels to describe and reflect upon the final hours of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

He said: “Much of the Passion – persecution of the innocent, malevolent authority exerting itself against ideas that threaten and challenge, the power of a peaceful, loving humility in the face of tyranny, the facing-down of fear – holds profound universal resonance for people of many faiths and those of none.”

The Spring Concert will be at Christ Church in Skipton on March 23 at 7.30pm. Laurie Ashworth and Robert Thompson will perform the soprano and tenor parts. Tickets cost £10, and free for under-16s. Call 01535 655417 to book tickets.