MALVERN-based choir Vital Spark will be performing a selection of West Gallery and shape note music at a charity concert in Malvern on Friday, June 11.

The choir will be joined by Luke Leighfield and Friends, providing light jazz, at the concert in Christ Church, Avenue Road, starting at 7.30pm. The event will raise money for Hope Carrier's Trust, which provides hope for orphaned children afflicted by AIDS, and Humanitarian Aid, Hereford, which has provided aid to Bosnia for the last 10 years.

Noel Trigg, of Vital Spark, said: "Both of these charities are run purely by volunteers and take precious aid and hope to these people and children who are so much worse off than ourselves.

"Bosnia is no longer in the limelight but its people are still suffering from the terrible conflicts in the past."

Vital Spark's programme will include authentic-sounding psalms, hymns and anthems as performed in the galleries at the west-end of village churches, immortalised by Thomas Hardy, between 1750 and 1850. The music is characterised by its joyful, robust and enthusiastic delivery, accompanied by serpent, clarinet, cello and violins.

The concert will also include shape note music, created by the early settlers in America, using their own musical notation of giving each note a shape. This music has a very strong following in America, and traces its roots to the original West Gallery music.

Entry to the concert is free. Refreshments, using Fair Trade products, will be served at the interval. There will be a retiring collection in aid of the two charities.