Monday 2 March 2015 Leeds Town Hall will echo to some familiar tunes when composer Howard Goodall conducts the combined musical forces of The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL), Leeds College of Music and Bradford Festival Choral Society. While Howard’s music is known to millions through his themes for popular TV shows and films including Blackadder, The Vicar of Dibley and Mr Bean, his compositions also include widely performed choral and orchestral music and stage shows. He has won numerous awards for composing, together with a BAFTA and other broadcast awards for his TV documentaries on the theory and history of music. The concert programme at Leeds Town Hall will include a full performance of Howard’s King James Bible oratorio Every Purpose Under the Heaven and several shorter choral works including Spared, a setting of Wendy Cope’s poem inspired by the events of 9/11, excerpts from Eternal Light: a Requiem and some familiar TV theme tunes. Instrumental performances will include Inspired for orchestra and guitar, the cello suite Spring and the piano solo Shackleton’s Cross which Howard himself will play. Well-known as an advocate for music education and awarded the CBE for services in this area, Howard is the ideal choice for this exciting concert, which will feature choir members, orchestral players and talented young soloists from GSAL and Leeds College of Music. The concert launches Arts ’15, GSAL’s two-week festival of creativity involving students throughout the school in a celebration of music, drama, art, design and cuisine. Andrew Wheeler, Head of the Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts at GSAL, said: “It is a real treat for our young musicians to have the opportunity of working with a living composer. Often they will focus on the dots on the page with little heed to who wrote them, so rehearsing Howard’s music knowing they are soon going to be conducted by the composer himself has brought a new dimension to their music-making.” An Evening with Howard Goodall takes place at Leeds Town Hall on Sunday 15 March at 7.30pm. Tickets include a pre-concert talk by Howard Goodall at 6.45 and can be booked online, with prices ranging from £8 to £20 (concessions available). Find out what’s on during Arts ’15 General News
