Julian Lloyd Webber to depict news via cello

Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber is to perform an improvisation with a backing orchestra at Birmingham's New Generation Arts Festival.

Lloyd Webber will use a live, 7pm BBC4 news broadcast on 5 June 2008 as the basis of his improvisation with his cello taking on the role of the newsreader and the orchestra, consisting of students from the Birmingham Conservatoire, providing the accompaniment.

The project harks back to the time of silent movies when pianists would improvise to moving images at cinemas to add emotion to pictorial scenes being displayed to an audience.