Wednesday 21^st June 2023 saw the Celebration Concert at Leeds Arena funded by Leeds Music Education Partnership (LMEP) and led by ArtForms Music.  The event was a huge success, featuring over 700 children and young people from schools across Leeds.

The 2,000 strong audience were treated to performances from ArtForms’ flagship City of Leeds Youth Orchestra, Leeds Youth Jazz Rock Orchestra and Roots Alive, the ArtForms folk band.  In addition several LMEP Partners were featured including the DJ Schools’ Beat It Team with the Corpus Rappers and the Leeds Junior Conservatoire’s band, Hole In The Ceiling.

A big part of the work that LMEP and ArtForms offer Leeds schools are the projects that provide new learning and performance opportunities in Music.  Our Taiko Project that has been running in Leeds secondary schools for 2 years now, provides teachers with training, resources including a scheme of work, and a full class set of Japanese Taiko drums.  At the Celebration Concert Cockburn School’s Thunder Taiko Drummers performed a fantastic piece called Kamaete after working with Jim Gaylard from the ArtForms percussion team.

The Taiko project for secondaries is part of Music Connect, our support programme for Music education in all Leeds schools.  It was originally delivered by our working partners, Louder Than Life who also run our Samba project for primaries.  The Celebration Concert opened with the specially commissioned Marching On Samba by Tim Brain featuring a samba band of 70 children from 3 different schools – Alwoodley Primary, and Cross Gates Primary – and featuring the Temple Moor drum group – Raven Percussion, and their light-up drum sticks.  A bold, loud, impressive way to start the show with a Samba groove just for Leeds.

The ArtForms Singing Strategy was brilliantly represented by the four different choirs featured in the event.  These were the Cockburn MAT Choir, The Woodkirk Upper School Choir, the choirs of Roundhay School and finally the Leeds Schools’ Choir featuring 400 children and young people from over 50 schools across Leeds.  The singing strategy is lead by our Choirs Co-ordinator, Claire Rivers and puts singing at the heart of Music education in Leeds.

This enormous choir, conducted by Jayne Leadbeater, took the lead role in our finale performance of The Future’s In Our Hands.  This song was commissioned by LMEP specifically for this event and written by our very own, Sarah Crowley who is the Events Co-ordinator for ArtForms.  Accompanied by the ArtForms house band, as well as the Youth Orchestra, the Jazz Rock Orchestra and the Samba Band this was a great way to finish off a great show with a big, big performance.

The Celebration Concert was the flagship event and centre piece of the annual, LMEP/Artforms Youth Music Festival.  For more information about events taking place across the city please click on the above link.

We are so proud of all the 700 children and young people involved in the Celebration Concert and of all the young musicians that we work with in Leeds.  Congratulations to them all for putting on such an impressive show.

The evening will include jazz, rock, and folk music, a ceilidh (with caller), and a bar and buffet. Get your dancing shoes on and join us!

Date: Saturday 9th March 2019
Time: 7.30-11pm
Venue: The Ballroom, Pudsey Civic Hall, LS28 5TA
Price: Adults £10 / Concession £5 (includes entrance and a free buffet)

To reserve your tickets (to collect on the door), please email Catherine at catherine.lloyd@leeds.gov.uk with your name and the number of tickets you require.

Please feel free to share our flyer for the event as well.

Schools are invited to bring primary, GCSE and A Level pupils along for an afternoon of music in a variety of genres from some of the city’s top young musicians. This year’s theme is “International” and will include performances from the City of Leeds Youth Orchestra, City of Leeds Youth Wind Orchestra, Leeds Youth Jazz-Rock Orchestra, Roots Alive – Youth Folk Group, and Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows, as well as guest group Rock ‘n’ Strings from Chemnitz, Germany.

Date: Tuesday 12th March 2019
Time: 1.15-2.45pm
Venue: Leeds Town Hall
Ticket price: £3.00 (adults and pupils)
Please note that schools are responsible for their own transport to and from the venue.

Tickets are allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

To reserve tickets for your school or for more information, please email catherine.lloyd@leeds.gov.uk.

Date: Thursday 19th July 2018
Time: 8pm (doors open 7.30pm)
Location: Seven Arts, Chapel Allerton
Price: £12 / £10 concession / £5 NUS (buy tickets here)

The band covers an array of styles from jazz to rock, whilst encompassing further influences from soul and funk. LYJRO gives young people in Leeds the chance to perform in a professional setting whilst learning how to be confident musicians, in both their reading and improvisation abilities. A fitting start to a Jazz Festival that aims to showcase the very best of music from Leeds

Click here for more information.

Date: Tuesday 13th March 2018
Time: 1.15pm-2.45pm
Location: Leeds Town Hall
Ticket cost: £2.50 per person (adults and children)

Tickets are first come, first served and can be reserved by emailing catherine.lloyd@leeds.gov.uk with the name of your school and the number of tickets you require.

You can download our flyer here (pdf).

Considering joining? For more information see the LYJRO webpage.

Hope to see you there!

If you’re interested, please come along to one of our rehearsals to get a feel for how we work and see if you’d like to join us permanently. We rehearse every Monday at Pudsey Civic Hall from 5pm-7pm.

Friday 23rd June, 8.30pm The New Headingley Club, St. Michael’s Road, LS6 3BG

Guest conductor Colin Byrne

Tickets £5 on the door

Venue: Queenswood Social Club, Spen Lane, Leeds LS6 3HT

Time: 8.00pm-11.30pm

Tickets to be reserved with Brendan or £5 on the door. All proceeds will be donated to LYJRO’s fundraising activities.

Click here to visit LYJRO’s web page and find out more about the band.