Leeds Lieder Festival

Welcome Party with Songs

West Yorkshire Playhouse

Friday 2 October 2009

4.00pm – 5.45pm

FREE

Please join us to celebrate the opening of the festival. In the Quarry Theatre, young people from Leeds schools will be performing art songs and their own compositions. Then join Julius Drake and Jane Anthony in the Foyer for an informal introduction to some of the treats in store this weekend. Free drink for those with a Festival+ ticket

http://www.leedslieder.org.uk/

Introduction in programme by Julius Drake, Artistic Director

“Leeds Lieder+ 2009 ia a unique celebration of song in its many different guises. An action packed three days starts on Friday afternoon with two schools concerts, Discovering Lieder+ and Cool Lieder+. I think they sum up the aim of the weekend – to open our ears to the marvellous repertoire of song from around the world.

English song is celebrated in a concert in which the outstanding tenor James Gilchrist is joined by the Endellion String Quartet; French and Russian song sung by the superb Joan Rodgers and German Song by the young mezzo Christianne Stotjin, a programme inspired by the wonderful cycle of Robert Schumann, Frauenliebe und Leben, a Woman’s Love and Life.

We celebrate the greatest of all song composers, Franz Schubert, with a ‘Schubertiade’, the name his friends gave to the intimate concerts he played to them of his music, as well as a performance of his immortal song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin.

There is a Flamenco workshop, a Composers and Poets Showcase, a recital featuring brilliant young Yorkshire musiciansm and a masterclass and interview with one of the greatest singers of the last fifty years, Dame Margaret Price.

Welcome to Leeds Lieder+, a weekend to remember!