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Contemporary Music Festival 2023

Friday 10 February

Stephanie Lamprea

Friday 10 February, 1:05pm (free admission) |

Stephanie Lamprea will premiere new works for voice by student composers at the University of Leeds, plus selections from Georges Aperghis’ 14 Recitations, for solo female voice.

Colombian-American soprano Stephanie Lamprea is an architect of new sounds and expressions as a performer, recitalist, curator, and improviser, specializing in contemporary classical repertoire. Trained as an operatic coloratura, she uses her voice as a mechanism of avant-garde performance art, creating “maniacal shifts of vocal production and character… like an icepick through the skull” (Jason Eckardt).

Jennifer Johnston & Joseph Middleton

Friday 10 February, 7:30pm (£15 / free) |

“It packs a hefty emotional punch”, so wrote the BBC Music Magazine when reviewing Jennifer Johnston and Joseph Middleton’s world premiere recording of Frances-Hoad’s One Life Stand. It is a decade since Johnston and Middleton gave the first performance of this cycle at Opera North, during Cheryl’s tenure as Cultural Fellow in Operatic Composition at the University of Leeds. Using texts by Sophie Hannah, it is a response to Schumann’s 1840 cycle Frauenliebe und-Leben. The rest of the programme draws a thread through English and American song, including a homage to Rorem, who died in November 2022.

Saturday 11 February

ELISION

Saturday 11 February, 7:30pm (£15 / free) |

ELISION is Australia’s premier new music ensemble. The ensemble is informed by an artisanal and intimately gestural approach to music making and a deep commitment to long-term co-creative processes of dialogue and relationship building with composers. The ensemble has delivered rare and authoritative artistic interpretations of the work of Liza Lim, Richard Barrett, Aaron Cassidy, Brian Ferneyhough, Cat Hope, Evan Johnson and many other composers.

Tuesday 14 February

Kate Harrison-Ledger

Tuesday 14 February, 6:00pm (free admission) |

Kate Harrison-Ledger is a pianist, collaborator and educator specialising in embodiment, spirituality, and authenticity via experimental artistic practice. She frequently collaborates with composers to explore the effects of musical notation on the way she moves as she performs. Through her practices of Feldenkrais and yoga, she explores how composers can work with or against her habitual performing movements. This concert explores themes of intimacy and care, in and around the piano, via sentimentality, storytelling, and exploration.

Wednesday 15 February

concerts+ COMPOSERS

Wednesday 15 February, 6:00pm (free admission) |
Another instalment of our series exploring experimental and new music, showcasing the work of composers in the School of Music.

Friday 17 February

lovemusic

Friday 17 February, 1:05pm (free admission) |

lovemusic's new programme, Heart of Light, was imagined for the month of February, the last month of winter, a distinctive colour lingering on the horizon giving us the impression something new is coming. Light has a central place in the ideas behind all the music.