THIS year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival may be approaching its final few days but there is no sign of the pace slowing.

Later today, the festival will present the first ever UK performance by violinist Malcolm Goldstein, co-founder in 60s New York with James Tenney and Philip Corner of the Tone Roads Ensemble.

He will be at St Thomas’s Church at 4pm today giving a performance which combines composed and improvised elements.

Later, at St Paul’s Hall, there will be a chance to celebrate the centennial of composer John Cage with a performance of the SONG-CAGE.

Produced by hcmf in association with Sound Intermedia, this is a colourful entertainment in which many pieces by Cage are presented in what he called a circus – different things happening at different times.

All the material in the performance is either by Cage or based on his ideas. The performance begins at 7.30pm.

Major concerts tomorrow include a performance at Huddersfield Town Hall (1pm) of three exciting new works played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

New York-based composer Matthias Pintscher will lead the orchestra in a performance of his Songs From Solomon’s Garden while the festival’s Composer in Residence, Maja S K Ratkje brings her extraordinary vocals to her signature concerto.

The orchestra rounds off the programme by playing Wolfgang Rihm’s acclaimed cello concerto in the composer’s 60th birthday year.

Rihm’s work also features in a later concert at St Paul’s Hall (3pm) when the internationally acclaimed ensemble recherche returns to the festival for a third consecutive year.

Their programme also includes two premieres from the Danish composer Simon Steen-Anderson who shines a spotlight on both Rihm and on Schumann.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is back in Huddersfield Town Hall at 7.30pm tomorrow for a concert centred around a performance of the violin concerto Mar’eh by Matthew Pintscher.

Nordic contemporary music which has again been such a theme in this year’s festival, takes over at the Phipps Hall for a late night music-making session.

Legendary drummer Paul Lovens will join The Living Room, some of the most promising Nordic contemporary musicians.

Sunday sees the Cologne-based Minguet Quartet make its hcmf debut with a programme of works which again features on one of the festival’s featured composer’s Wolfgang Rihm as well as that of his former student, Jõrg Widmann.

The Lawrence Batley Theatre is the venue for an afternoon performance by the London Sinfonietta and Theatre of Voices.

Together they will perform a concert of UK premieres from Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, regarded as one of the pivotal musical figures of the New Simplicity movement during the Seventies.

The final event of the festival is a rare opportunity to hear all 10 of American composer James Tenney’s Postal Pieces.

These are miniature masterpieces, each written on the back of a postcard.

The pieces, which Tenney called Scorecards, are a series of short studies based on some of Tenney’s bedrock compositional ideas on sonority, harmony and time.

The performances start at 6pm and will take place at a series of venues including the university’s creative arts building and St Paul’s Hall.

More information on all the performances and tickets details from the box office on 01484 430528 or online at www.hcmf.co.uk