This year’s concert will be held on the 1^st July, and marks a triumphant comeback for the bi-annual event, which has become a cherished highlight in Leeds’ cultural calendar. Designed to showcase the talent and hard work of children from both primary and secondary schools, the evening will be a true testament to the power of music in bringing people together. You can see the highlights to the 2023 concert here.

A Stage for Young Talent

The concert offers pupils a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform on the iconic Leeds Arena stage. From choral pieces and orchestral arrangements to energetic instrumental ensembles, the programme will highlight the diversity and creativity of music education in Leeds.

Over 80 Schools United by Music

With participation from more than 80 schools, the concert is a unique demonstration of unity and collaboration. A teacher involved in the previous concert shared: “This concert is about so much more than just the music. It’s about confidence, teamwork, and creating memories that these children will carry with them for a lifetime. Seeing them perform at such a prestigious venue is nothing short of magical.”

Community at its Heart

The Celebration Concert isn’t just about the performers – it’s also a chance for families, friends, and the wider Leeds community to come together and support young people. The City of Leeds Youth music groups will be returning along with ArtForms Music Centres.

Sarah Crowley, event coordinator for ArtForms said “We are thrilled to bring the Celebration Concert back to the Leeds Arena, and this year’s event is bigger than ever. Music has an incredible ability to bring people together, and we’re so proud to see how this concert reflects the spirit and talent of our city’s young people.”

Tickets for the event are expected to sell quickly, so be sure to secure yours when they come on sale soon via the ArtForms website and Leeds arena website, to witness this unforgettable celebration of music, community, and the next generation of talent.

If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please contact wymh.artforms@leeds.gov.uk.

The City of Leeds Youth Orchestra are putting out a second call for the following instruments:

• Viola
• Trombone
• Percussion
• Clarinet

Auditions for these instruments will take place on Friday 20^th September at Pudsey Civic Hall. Auditionees will be asked to play two contrasting pieces of at least a Grade 6 standard and an orchestral excerpt (which will be sent out two weeks before). There is no accompanist available on this date, so all pieces will be unaccompanied.

If you play any of the instruments above and would like to audition for CLYO, please complete this google form – https://forms.gle/2t2nW19SSRnhWX5C9

The deadline is Friday 30^th August 2024.

The City of Leeds Youth Orchestra is not looking for applications for instruments other than those listed at this time.

Please contact educ.artforms@leeds.gov.uk if you have any questions.

Ukulele Workshops

Thursday 25th July, 10.30am – 11.30am
Farsley Community Hub and Library, LS28 5DH

Thursday 25th July, 1.30pm – 2.30pm
Otley Community Hub and Library, LS21 1EZ

Leeds Libraries invite you to learn how to play a Ukulele and have fun at this family friendly
event! This inspired taster session offers a fun introduction to the Ukulele instrument and an
opportunity to connect with others for a positive learning experience, to boost your health and
wellbeing.
Sessions will be delivered in collaboration with Leeds Music Centres, part of ArtForms.

A free event for age 7+.
All children must be accompanied by adult.

Booking essential: www.ticketsource.co.uk/leedslibraryevents

Summer Reading Challenge:
Drumming Workshops

Friday 26 July, 10.30am – 11.30am
Armley Community Hub & Library, LS12 1UQ

Friday 26th July, 1.30pm – 2.30pm
The Reginald Centre Community Hub and Library, LS7 3EX

Friday 26th July, 4.00pm – 5.00pm
The Compton Centre Community Hub and Library, LS9 7BG

And also:

Tuesday 30th July, 11.00am – 12.00 pm
Whinmoor Library, LS14 2DF

Tuesday 30th July, 1.30pm – 2.30pm
Scholes Library, LS15 4BJ

“You can be a drummer”
To celebrate this year’s Summer Reading Challenge theme of Marvellous Makers, join us for this
session led by Artforms, where you will learn how to make marvellous music, exploring the world
of rhythm, drumming improvisation and singing. This session will contain a mixture of West
African and contemporary rhythms and traditional songs, using Djembe drums and percussion
instruments. Children and their grown-ups of any ability are welcome to this inclusive event. Bring
your family and join the fun! Sessions delivered in collaboration with Leeds Music Centres, part of
Artforms.

A free family-friendly event recommended for children aged 4 +.
All children must be accompanied by adult.

Booking essential: www.ticketsource.co.uk/leedslibraryevents

YAMSEN (Yorkshire Association for Music and Special Educational Needs) hosted ‘YAMSEN Flies to Neverland,’ its yearly set of full-day, immersive, multi-sensory events for pupils with PMLD (Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties) and musical activity events for autistic pupils and pupils with moderate to severe learning disabilities.  The days are funded by LMEP (Leeds Music Education Partnership, the local music hub) and supported by the SEND team at ArtForms music service.  Pupils from special schools in Leeds and across West Yorkshire attended—so many that each event was repeated, for a total of four days of music and fun.  Because of Pudsey Civic Hall’s accessibility, over 40 pupils in wheelchairs were able to attend each multisensory day.

The multisensory and music days are a rare chance for special school staff and pupils to mingle with other special schools.  Each day features a range of activities designed to be repeated or adapted in the classroom, with big instruments for feeling vibrations and props that help pupils make sense of the activities at their own pace.  The days are meant to be both educational and promote a sense of playfulness and stimulation, which can be a challenge particularly among pupils with PMLD.  The multisensory days feature a live band who are experienced in working with children who have additional needs, and they move throughout the room so that the children can experience music up close.

Several of the groups are taught by the ArtForms SEND Music Team.  It was fantastic to see the children reaching out to engage with objects and instruments they enjoyed, bonding with their staff, smiling at people in costume and reacting to big sounds and movement.  Many of the children arrived in style, dressed in costume.  They enjoyed getting up from their seats to dance around, acting out their characters with staff.  The pupils at the Music Days made art, learnt a tune and some rhythms on steel pans and percussion, and helped the crocodile to get Captain Hook in the end.  A teacher from Greenmeadows spoke of one pupil who is particularly motivated by music.  She is normally very quiet and reserved in class but becomes a completely different, confident person with music.  It was fantastic to see her shine and engage in so much.

To find out more about YAMSEN and the Multisensory and Music Days, visit yamsen.org.uk or contact yamsen4@gmail.com.

To enquire about ArtForms SEND provision in schools please email Joanna.Winster@leeds.gov.uk

Joanna Winster – ArtForms Music SEND Team and Inclusion Coordinator, and YAMSEN Chair of Operations Group

As part of the new West Yorkshire Music Hub, ArtForms is committed to supporting schools with their music development plans and to that end we have produced a bespoke, user friendly, ArtForms development plan template. This is designed to support primary schools at all stages of curriculum development including schools that have little or no music taking place, right up to the schools who already have a robust curriculum and co-curricular offer.

We are also able to offer a free music development consultation to all Leeds schools.  We can offer support and advice or sometimes just a second pair of eyes to look over your plans. If you would like a member of the ArtForms leadership team to visit your school, please either book through Leeds for Learning or email educ.artforms@leeds.gov.uk.  It is helpful if you could give some indication as to when the best days/times in the week would be for a visit.

The DfE have also created a template to support schools to publish a summary of their Music Development Plan on their website.  They worked with teachers and leaders at both primary and secondary level to design this.

These templates are not mandatory, and schools should feel free to adapt them or use their own format to publish on their websites.

Publishing a summary of their development plan will help schools to:

• raise awareness of their music development plan
• promote the school music offer to parents and prospective parents
• give greater opportunity for schools and music hubs to work together

ArtForms are always willing to work with Leeds schools.  Please send any queries or requests for music development reviews to educ.artforms@leeds.gov.uk.

Sam Mercer – Music Curriculum Support Manager, ArtForms

In 2023, Arts Council announced a national retender for Hub leads and included a reduction to 43 Hub areas nationally and, from 1st September 2024, the Leeds LA area will fall into a wider Music Hub covering all of West Yorkshire and encompassing Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees.

A rigorous application process opened in summer 2023 for interested parties to apply to be the new hubs leads, of which ArtForms along with Bradford Music and Arts Service, Calderdale Music Trust, Musica Kirklees and Wakefield Music Services worked relentlessly to propose a strong West Yorkshire Hub model to secure ongoing funding and to further increase opportunities in each area that both addressed the needs of each locality, as well as achieving the aims and ambition of the new National Plan for Music Education.

Following a national announcement from Arts Council England in May, we are excited to announce that the strategic consortium group of ArtForms, Bradford Music & Arts Service (representing the group as named Lead Organisation), Calderdale Music Trust, Musica Kirklees and Wakefield Music Services have secured ongoing £3.5million of annual funding into the region and a further £1.2m for refreshing Music Instrument resource.  You can read the Arts Council release here Arts Council England announces new Music Hub Lead Organisations | Arts Council England.

We look forward to being able to not only continue our exciting range of opportunities for Leeds but also to developing it further for West Yorkshire by:

• appointing a range of Lead Schools to share good practice (information to be released in 2024-25)
• increased progression routes for children
• collaborative activities with a range of local, regional and national partner organisations
• increased support and opportunities for Musical Inclusion
• secure more funding streams to support high quality music experiences for children
• and so much more!

From September, look for information from both ArtForms AND the West Yorkshire Music Hub!

You can find out about all cashback and bursary offers for schools in Leeds here.

From September 2024 the West Yorkshire Music Hub replaces LMEP.

Although this funding goes some way to supporting extra music provision, we recognise that for some schools budgets are still very tight and more funding is needed to help deliver quality musical experiences. With this in mind, we have conducted a funding review to direct schools to find external funding streams. This is now on our website Funding Review (artformsleeds.co.uk)

We hope you find this information useful and feel encouraged to apply for further resources to enhance you music opportunities in school.

Please check the links to each website for further details of eligibility and how to apply, checking for any changes that may be made after publication of this report. West Yorkshire Music Hub cannot accept responsibility for any errors or changes made to the funds further to publication of this report.

Sarah Truscott – Assistant Head, ArtForms (WYMH)

Leeds Lieder has been running free-to-school singing projects since 2005.  Now they invite the SILCs and Special Schools of Leeds to take part in an exciting next chapter!  They would like to establish a regular project tailored towards young people with special educational needs and disabilities.   This project would enable them to experience music that they might not otherwise hear and to engage with Leeds Lieder’s excellent team of artists.

Leeds Lieder is a classical song festival which brings some of the world’s finest singers and pianists to perform in Leeds every year.  Phil Wilcox, the Leeds Lieder Learning and Participation Manager, has developed this project and is offering special schools and settings one of the following:

45-minute Performance: an engaging and interactive recital of Lieder (classical song) given by two singers and a pianist. They would come into school and perform a selection of brilliant songs selected for their humour, story-telling, emotion and ability to capture an audience. This might be most suitable to a group of autistic pupils or those who have moderate to severe learning disabilities and PMLD/CMLN. They would be happy to incorporate any props/materials/instruments/parachutes/sensory items that you use in school and might even bring their own.

Or

1.5 hr Workshop: based on our KS2 Discovering Lieder workshop, they would invite the children into the wonderful world of art song. They would perform songs for the group and then engage them in question and answer and interactive musical games before inviting them to write their very own verse to an Art Song. This might be most suitable for a group which communicates at around the KS2 level who perhaps already enjoy singing.

For more information and to book a place for your school, contact Phil Wilcox directly at phil@leedslieder.org.uk. If you would like to know more about Leeds Lieder projects, you can do so by visiting www.leedslieder.org.uk/learning.

Joanna Winster, ArtForms

You must be a resident in Leeds or attending a Leeds school/college (anybody from outside of Leeds will be subject to review).

The deadline to apply is 2pm on 26^th May 2024. Please complete the google form – https://forms.gle/sCCeyFGNsYrPeDW47.

If you have any further questions, please contact us via educ.artforms@leeds.gov.uk or 0113 3782850.

Audition information sheet CLYO CLYWO 2024

Due to the success of our previous Autumn project, Leeds City Art Gallery and Leeds Music Education Partnership (LMEP) have teamed up once again to bring you an immersive Arts project which all schools can register a class for during the summer term. This FREE Art and Music project is aimed at KS2 and KS3 children and will take place in Leeds Art Gallery on selected dates in the summer term.

Project outline:

• This project will link Art activities with music composition and improvisation through a common theme.
• Leeds Art Gallery will host an online gallery visit for each visiting school, and introduce the themes of the visit and provide interactive activities prior to the session at the Gallery.
• A morning or afternoon visit for a designated class to the Art gallery either on Friday 28th June or Friday 12th July, which will include an opportunity to make music and art in the gallery space, and gives the chance for children to explore the latest Art exhibition at the gallery.

The project is fully funded by Leeds Art gallery and LMEP, and you will be able to get support with transport costs to the Art Gallery via LMEP’s innovative grant. Two-form entry schools are welcome to take part. To register your interest, please email LMEP.ArtForms@leeds.gov.uk and state your preferred date.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Sarah Truscott at LMEP.ArtForms@leeds.gov.uk or Amanda

Philips Amanda.Philips@leeds.gov.uk.

Sarah Truscott – Assistant Head, ArtForms (LMEP)