HEREFORD Choral Society is 'chucking out the chintz'.

The society's last outing - a Baroque Messiah - went down a storm in December.

And now, Geraint Bowen has come up with a varied, contemporary programme for the society's spring concert on March 12.

At its centrepiece, Sir Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time will be performed for the first time in many years in Hereford.

"The resonance of the text is particularly relevant at this time," Geraint said.

The oratorio, first performed in 1944, was inspired by an act of a conscientious objector.

In Tippett's eyes, a 17-year-old Polish Jew, Herschel Grynspan, became a symbolic scapegoat - the child of our time.

Tippett took Bach's Passions and Handel's Messiah as the models for his work, but introduced spirituals for comfort.

The other works in the programme are Overture to The Mikado, by Arthur Sullivan and The Rio Grande by Constant Lambert - English eyes reflecting America.

The latter allows assistant organist, Peter Dyke, to show his mettle in a fiendishly difficult and dazzling piano solo.

"It is such change from what I normally play at the cathedral," he said.

"The potential for expressiveness is completely different to the organ."

All three are new pieces for the Choral Society, which has hired a concert grand for the performance.

The Rio Grande is a jazz piano concerto with choral accompaniment, which has a lot going for it in terms of its syncopated rhythms and toe-tapping.

In a move to encourage new audiences, the society is offering adults the chance to bring two children to the performance free of charge.

For people unable to attend the concert, members of the public are invited to attend the rehearsal on Saturday afternoon (March 12).

Tickets for the concert, which begins at 7.30pm in Hereford Cathedral, are available on 01432 274144.