Friday 25 - Sunday 27 October will see the first RTÉ Living Music Festival, a major new festival devoted to contemporary music by leading international and Irish figures, take place in The Helix, Ireland's newest multi-venue performance centre located at Dublin City University.

This first festival, under the artistic direction of Raymond Deane, will pay tribute to the distinguished Italian composer Luciano Berio in the company of some of Europe's finest soloists, ensembles and conductors.

Over 200 performers will take part. They include the National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra and RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, specialist contemporary music ensembles including the London Sinfonietta and London Sinfonietta Voices, the Belgian chamber music group Ictus, the Crash Ensemble and Vox 21.

Soloists include the Swedish virtuoso trombonist Christian Lindberg, who will perform orchestral and solo works by Berio, and the Italian viola player and contemporary music specialist Maurizio Barbetti, who will perform Berio's Chemins II. Guest conductors will include Pierre Andre Valade, Zsolt Nagy, Terry Edwards and Friedrich Goldmann.

A major highlight of this festival, involving eight performances and four seminars, will be a rare public interview with Berio himself on Sunday 27 October who has agreed to travel to Ireland for the first time as guest of honour at the festival.

Programme highlights will include the first performances in the Republic of Ireland of Berio's Laborintus II, Stravinsky's Agon, Stockhausen's Formel and Varèse's Hyperprism, the world premières of new works commissioned by RTÉ Music from three of Ireland's most talented young composers -- Rob Canning, Andrew Hamilton and Deirdre McKay, performances of works by Gerald Barry, Seoirse Bodley, Donnacha Dennehy and more.

Additional highlights, particularly for those with a literary inclination, will include the performances of works by Berio and Roger Marsh, inspired by Joyce's writings -- Thema (Omaggio a Joyce), Chamber Music and Not a soul but ourselves -- and the four seminars led by the Berio and Joyce scholar David Osmond Smith including exploration of Berio's links to Joyce, Eco and Sanguineti. For those with an interest in vocal and/or choral music, the performances of works such as Berio's Chamber Music and Folk Songs with soprano Judith Mok, Sequenza III with Natasha Lohan and Cries of London and Laborintus II with the internationally acclaimed London Sinfonietta Voices and Sound Intermedia will be of key interest.

RTÉ Music hopes that a large number and variety of key figures from Irish cultural life will support this festival. Ticket prices range from 5 to 20 euro with 50% concession on all ticket prices for students, unwaged and senior citizens. Special day and weekend tickets are also available.

Bookings can be made directly through The Helix on 01 700 7000.

Berio himself once said: "My ideal public is one with many faces, all bringing different motivations to their encounter with the music…I don't think that there's a right and a wrong way of listening to it: just more simple and more complex ones."

RTÉ Music looks forward to seeing your face, and those of your friends and/or colleagues at some or all of the festival events!