Leeds Lieder Festival - A Landmark Year
2023 is a landmark year for Leeds Lieder as the Festival expands from four days to nine, running from Friday 9 – Saturday 17 June.
Inspired by the celebratory spirit of the city, the theme of this year’s festival is ‘Touches of Sweet Harmony’, tapping into Leeds’ delightfully in-tune embrace of culture. This edition of the Leeds Lieder Festival delves deeper into local communities and features a vast array of concerts and events, bringing icons of art song into the already thriving, ever-flowing lifeblood of the city without missing a beat.
Programmed by Festival Director Joseph Middleton, this ambitious 12th Leeds Lieder Festival presents recitals by both established and rising artists, seven pre-performance talks and an ‘In conversation’ with the legendary mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker, followed by a screening of John Bridcut’s acclaimed 2019 documentary ‘Janet Baker: In Her Own Words’. As the Festival’s Guest of Honour, her appearance is sure to make for a special occasion. Another unmissable evening is the Celebrity recital with soprano Véronique Gens, accompanied by her regular partner Susan Manoff, in what will be their Festival debuts. Gens’s interpretation of French song is unparalleled, and her arrival in the UK is rare enough, never mind outside of London.
A new initiative for 2023 is the introduction of ‘A Leeds Songbook’ – twelve composers from the UK’s leading conservatoires and Northern universities have been paired with Leeds-based poets to create songs that will tell unique stories about the people of Leeds. These new songs will be performed in concert by the 2023 Leeds Lieder Young Artists, postgraduate singers and pianists drawn from across the UK, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and South East Asia.
A hugely important aspect of Leeds Lieder is the opportunity it offers to young performers through its Leeds Lieder Young Artists Programme. Twenty-four outstanding Young Artists will participate in a series of masterclasses with specialists such as Sir Thomas Allen, Joan Rodgers CBE, Graham Johnson OBE, Susan Manoff, Julius Drake, RSC actor James Garnon and Festival Director Joseph Middleton. They will perform to Festival audiences at a special showcase concert, informative study event led by Dr Katy Hamilton and at the late-night Lieder Lounge in the informal setting of Leeds Conservatoire’s rooftop bar.
Taking the Festival ever deeper into the local community, the popular Bring and Sing! event invites amateur singers to come together to perform Mozart’s Requiem at Leeds Minster alongside the Young Artists, and for the first time Leeds Lieder will incorporate its two award-winning Learning and Participation projects, Living Lieder and Discovering Lieder, into the main festival with two school concerts featuring nearly 1000 children at Pudsey Civic Hall. The musical walking trail SongPath returns this year to the rich natural setting of the 900-year-old ruins of Kirkstall Abbey, led by singers Jess Dandy and Joanna Harries, and the Festival sees a collaboration with members of the Orchestra of Opera North, their Head of Music, David Cowan, and tenor Nick Pritchard in a recital of works by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
In finding a point of harmony across artists, mediums and audiences, there’s truly something for everyone at the 2023 Leeds Lieder Festival – whether you’re participating, supporting your community or simply looking to be awed!
