THE Chester Summer Music Festival – which gets under way next week – has asked the Cries of London group to perform in surroundings that match their versatility and unique tones.

They will be in action at St Mary’s Centre, in the council chamber and the Assembly Rooms at Chester Town Hall.

They will begin in the medieval age, pass through bawdy realms, do penance in church and sing on the subject of love, death and drinking.

Among all that will be the Battle of Jericho, Scottish folk numbers and the hits of Frank Sinatra.

Cries of London, first prize winners in the 2011 Royal Overseas League Competition, are a vocal ensemble of eight talented young singers.

Its two principal repertoire areas are music of the last 100 years and of the Renaissance.

The Cries of London will help open the festival on the BIG Sing weekend on Saturday.

Following their appearance on the streets, they will run their first workshop which provides a rare opportunity to enhance your skills in unaccompanied ensemble singing.

On Sunday, another workshop will allow you to work on two close harmony pieces based on music in their programme.

The workshops are suitable for all singers and an ability to read music would be an advantage.

The Cries of London will then perform their full repertoire at St Mary’s Centre on July 1 at 7.30pm.

The Cries are back in Chester the following weekend – July 6-8 – to perform in Let’s Hear It, a festival within a festival.

Here they will perform bite size chunks of wide ranging close harmony concerts and a programme of popular classic songs and arias.

For details, visit www.chesterfestivals.co.uk or call 0845 2417868.