Mary Bevan

Joseph Middleton

Leeds Conservatoire

Tenor Ian Bostridge CBE joins Leeds Song Director Joseph Middleton to open our 2026–27 season with a programme of rare intensity and insight.

Long‑established as one of the most compelling interpreters of Schubert and Britten, Bostridge brings his unmistakable intellectual depth and emotional immediacy to a recital that pairs selected Schubert songs with Britten’s searing The Holy Sonnets of John Donne.

Bostridge is one of the world’s leading tenors, with an international career that spans major concert halls, opera houses and festivals. His recital appearances have taken him to Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Aldeburgh and the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, as well as Carnegie Hall, the Bayerische Staatsoper, La Monnaie and Teatro alla Scala. On the operatic stage he has earned particular acclaim for roles such as Aschenbach (Death in Venice) at the Deutsche Oper and Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw) at La Scala.

Leeds Song: Ian Bostridge and Joseph Middleton

The series opens with a colourful selection of chamber works from two continents. Ina Boyle’s String Quartet introduces a distinctive voice of quiet intensity, while Amy Beach, one of America’s most gifted late Romantic composers, brings sweeping emotion and generosity in her Piano Quintet.

Antonín Dvořák’s much-loved American Quartet closes the concert, blending echoes of American folk music and spirituals with his distinctive Bohemian musical voice.

Piatti Quartet & Simon Callaghan

Having graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, Madeleine now studies with Kathryn Stott at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she recently won the prestigious Gold Medal. She has performed to international acclaim, winning first prize at the Bromsgrove International Musicians’ Competition in May 2025.

Earlier this year, Madeleine made debut appearances at Wigmore Hall and on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. Later in 2026 she will debut at Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham.

Madeleine Brown

After studying at Chetham’s School of Music, Claire now attends the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2024, she reached the brass final of BBC Young Musician of the Year. Sam studied music at the University of Cambridge and now studies ensemble piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Their programme includes Sigurd Berge’s Horn-Lokk which blends traditional horn calls with Norwegian folk inspired melodies.

Sigurd Berge (1929-2002) was a Norwegian composer known for his contributions to music education and his interest in Norwegian folk music. His works span a variety of styles, from traditional tonal music to electronic music and multi-media compositions.

Royal Academy of Music

Mary Zimmerman’s The Odyssey is epic storytelling with a mischievous, modern twist. This bold retelling subverts expectation, blending Homer’s ancient myth with contemporary humour and irreverence. 

Odysseus’s journey becomes a playful, shape-shifting adventure story - highly physical, surprising and deeply human. Praised by the New York Times as “the greatest show in the sky, on the seas, even on earth with side trips to the underworld,” this is theatre that invites audiences to travel, not just to watch. Daring, funny and visually inventive, The Odyssey is a voyage not to be missed.

The Odyssey

Leeds Playhouse

Having won First Prize at the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition, Eric Lu has since achieved the rare distinction of becoming one of only two pianists – alongside fellow Leeds laureate Radu Lupu – to have claimed two of the four major international piano competitions. This remarkable feat was confirmed with his First Prize victory at the XIX International Chopin Piano Competition in 2025. Reflecting his most recent win, Eric includes two pieces by Chopin in his programme.

Eric Lu

Samrat Majumder is a Scottish-Indian classical guitarist currently studying for his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore with Professor Manuel Barrueco. In May 2025 he became the inaugural Young Concert Artists Trust 40th Anniversary Artist at Wigmore Hall, a joint Young Classical Artists Guild Artist, and was named a Classic FM Rising Star in February 2026.

Samrat Majumder

The Cardinal Quintet is a Manchester-based wind quintet, made up of recent graduates of the Royal Northern College of Music. Since then, Kaoruko, Cara, Connor, Esmé and Anna have enjoyed playing in a variety of concerts and venues across the North West, including the RNCM Concert Hall, Manchester Cathedral, and St Ann’s Church. They were winners of the 2025 RNCM Fewkes Chamber Music Prize and the 2025 June Emerson Launchpad Chamber Music Prize. Valerie Coleman’s Red Clay and Mississippi Delta vividly depicts the bluesy dialect of the Mississippi delta region, home to her mother’s family.

Cardinal Quintet - Relaxed Performance

It comes at seven minutes past midnight. And it wants the truth. 

Conor O'Malley is thirteen years old, and he has been keeping something locked inside him — something he can't say out loud, even to himself. His mum is very sick. The kids at school won't look him in the eye. And every night, the same nightmare wakes him.

Patrick Ness's Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation is a powerful, imaginative story of grief, courage and the stories we tell to survive.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Quarry Hill Campus Leeds City College

Rossall International Piano Academy is a unique and innovative programme for outstanding young pianists aged 11–18. Teaching and coaching are delivered through lessons and workshops with worldclass performers such as Martin Roscoe and Kathryn Stott.

Rossall International Piano Academy

Soprano Mary Bevan joins Leeds Song Director Joseph Middleton for an evocative recital built around Elegy, the pair's acclaimed 2025 release on Signum Records.

Born from their programme From Earth to Heaven, Elegy reflects a period of profound personal loss and the healing power of music. Shaped by Bevan’s experience of grieving for her father, the performance traces a moving arc from sorrow to consolation, exploring the mystery of death and the quiet transcendence found in song.

The programme features works by Schubert, Fauré, Mahler, Jeanne Landry, Errollyn Wallen, Pauline Viardot, and others—an intimate journey through mourning, reflection, and renewal. Their previous album Voyages was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award, and their recitals across Europe have earned widespread critical praise.

Leeds Song: Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton

Cellist Bartholomew LaFollette and pianist Simon Callaghan present an evening of contrast, discovery and championed repertoire.