ONE of the UK's outstanding young choirs brings the Lancaster Arts at Lancaster University season to an exhilarating finish.

Choir of Clare College Cambridge graces the university's Great Hall on Saturday, March 18 (7.30pm) with A Lenten Sequence - music from Kenneth Leighton, Walton, Lobo, Brahms and Vaughan Williams' powerful anthem Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Refuge.

Choral scholarship students from Cambridge University are part of a musical tradition that has produced generations of glorious singers regardless of the nature of their undergraduate studies and have gained an international reputation as one of the leading university choral groups in the world. Their musical director, Graham Ross, has devised a series of concerts and recordings based around the events and seasons on the liturgical calendar, and the LU concert features music that would have been heard during Lent across five centuries.

Meanwhile, in the penultimate concert on Thursday (March 9, 7.30pm), the university series hosts world-renowned pianist Noriko Ogawa, performing a captivating programme which includes complementary pieces by Clara Schumann and her husband Robert, and epic works by Liszt and Chopin. At the heart of the concert, the Japanese musician has placed an enchanting musical jewel from her home country - Toru Takemitsu’s Rain Tree Sketch II.

Born in Kawasaki, Noriko began playing piano aged just four and was taught initially by her mother. She launched a vibrant international performing career when she won third place in the 1987 Leeds International Piano Competition.

Noriko serves as a patron and Cultural Ambassador for the National Autistic Society performing concerts for the parents of autistic children both in Japan and the UK.