Live music is coming back to Windsor - with a magical performance in the Great Park of new works based around a famous 12th century poem.

The performance will take place in the open air and money raised will go towards the work of the park's Cumberland Lodge - the 17th-century former royal residence now operating as a charity that hosts conferences which through dialogue and debate tackle the causes and effects of social division.

Closure during the pandemic has deprived it of its income.

The concert on Saturday, September 12 will be performed by Cantata Dramatica - a not-for-profit organisation that commissions and promotes new music and works with both professional and amateur performers.

There will be performances of music and dance on the lawn composed and arranged by Danyal Dhondy, based on the great Persian poem The Conference of the Birds.

This light-hearted adaptation of the famous 12th-century poem will be performed by singers, instrumentalists and dancers, drawing on musical sounds and motifs from the Middle East and South Asia.

The mystical words have been reimagined in a new song-cycle - designed to echo the unique methodology of Cumberland Lodge in bringing people together to discuss pressing issues, collaboratively.

It features seven solo songs from the Birds - the Hoopoe, Owl, Crow, Swan, Falcon, Nightingale and Peacock - and a trio for Thee Moths. There are Indian raga-style improvisations on the oud, tabla, oboe, violin and keyboard.

The band and singers are conducted by James Potter, and the dancers twirl like Dancing Dervishes under the direction of Sian Hopkins.

Gates open at 4pm and the performance will commence at 5.30pm, lasting about an hour-and-a-half.

Freshly prepared picnic boxes from the chefs at Cumberland Lodge are available to pre-order and overnight accommodation is also available on a bed-and-breakfast basis.

Tickets are now on sale at enquiries@cumberlandlodge.ac.uk or 01784 220521.