Ellesmere Port Music Society is hoping it will again be rushing to put out extra seats for its spring concert.

The society’s concert in December featuring The Armed Man mass by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins saw stalwarts hurriedly making extra seats available at the last minute as music lovers poured into the town’s civic hall.

With rehearsals in full swing the society is offering John Rutter’s Magnificat on Saturday, April 21 with its choir, the Ellesmere Port Sinfonia and soloists all conducted by music director Lloyd Buck.

The work, based on a traditional part of the ancient Catholic service of vespers offering thanksgiving and praise, had its UK premiere in 1991 in Coventry Cathedral.

It was first heard the previous year in New York’s Carnegie Hall.

The programme unveiled by the society will also include Arthur Sullivan’s Boer War Te Deum, Felix Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer and Sancte Deus composed by Mr Buck in 2005.

Tickets for the concert, taking place at 7.30pm on April 21 in the civic hall, are available price £15, students £7.50 and under 18s free from 0151 339 5225.