HIGHLY regarded concert pianist Anthony Hewitt plays his part in a special event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Kendal has been chosen to host the lighting of one of 70 candles designed by Turner Prize-winning artist Sir Anish Kapoor as part of a national initiative to commemorate the anniversary.

And as part of the Monday, January 26, commemorations organised by South Lakeland District Council, Anthony - who is artistic director of Ulverston International Music Festival - will perform a free concert at Kendal Town Hall at 2pm, against a backdrop of projected films from the archive of Trevor Avery's Lake District Holocaust Project.

Featured will be music by musicians from the Theresienstadt concentration camp as well as works by Jewish composers, including Mendelssohn, Ravel and Gershwin, and will be preceded by the lighting of the special Anish Kapoor candle by Theresienstadt concentration camp survivor Joe Berger to honour survivors of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.

There will be an introduction by Susan Stein, a New York-based actor and Holocaust educationalist.

Earlier, there will by a short ceremony at The Birdcage on Finkle Street, Kendal, at noon.

The Birdcage will be adorned with artwork produced by students at the Lakes School, and Lakes School student Keelan Hardy will read out a poem he has composed for the event, while a member of the Lancaster and Lakes Jewish community will recite the Kaddish.