A WORLD premiere, a family concert and art exhibitions are among the highlights of the 28th Autumn in Malvern Festival, which takes place in September and October.

The premiere is a major new work from the composer Alec Roth, who has set to music a cycle of poems by Dymock poet Edward Thomas, who was killed in the First World War battle of Arras a century ago.

The song cycle will be performed by distinguished tenor Mark Padmore and the Sacconi String Quartet at Great Malvern Priory, together with a performance of Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge.

The festival's artistic director Peter Smith said: ''For the principal concert this year, we have the welcome return of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the University of Worcester Arena.

"This is planned as a family concert to coincide with the university's Beeline Festival for young people, with affordable ticket prices."

The programme includes Benjamin Britten's, Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra, Bruch's Violin Concerto No 1 and Dvorak's New World symphony. The conductor is Kazuki Yamada and the violinist is Hyeyoon Park.

Also in the Priory, Aldwyn Voices presents a programme entitled Music Inspired by Poetry, settings of sacred and secular choral works, and a performance of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending.

On the visual and literary arts side, there are illustrated talks on Dame Laura and Harold Knight, a sequence on the poet Rupert Brooke's creative relationship with two musical composers, and on National Poetry Day readings from a recently published anthology, Voices of 1919, written and read by 20 contemporary poets at Elmslie House.

There is the annual arts and crafts market with performances by Upton Young Jazz and The Big Draw with free professional tuition.

Five exhibitions form the festival art trail, including Val Pitchford's exhibition of affordable abstract art in Malvern Library Gallery, alongside paintings by the Birmingham Surrealist artist John Melville.

The Original Artwork Store has a wide selection of paintings, Images of Malvern, and Brian Iles curates rarely-seen pictures of Malvern from Malvern Library archives in the north aisle of Malvern Priory.