Blast Off to Space!

Blast off on an exciting musical adventure into outer space to visit the planets and stars - an intergalactic story told through lots of varied pieces of interesting classical music for voice, cello & piano - and some audience participation! What will we see and hear on our journey? And will we make our way safely back to Earth? Join us for this short, relaxed, interactive family concert, suitable for children up to the age of 8 years old. Presented by &Piano and Leeds Song.

&Piano is a classical music festival founded in 2018, based in Huddersfield, dedicated to promoting chamber music and classical song across West Yorkshire, and championing exceptional established and early-career musicians with a connection to the North of England. Events aim to break the typical moulds of classical music events, with innovative programming, performances in unconventional spaces, and introductions and explanations about the music by performers, all with an aim of creating events that appeal to audiences who are both familiar and unfamiliar to classical music.

The festival annually presents events designed for families to enjoy, offers performance opportunities to amateur performers and local young musicians, and delivers a school recital tour, which annually reaches over 1000 secondary school students across Kirklees and Calderdale, introducing them to live classical instrumental and vocal music.

Leeds Song was founded in 2004 as Leeds Lieder+ and is now recognised is one of the UK’s leading festivals dedicated to the art of song, bringing together exceptional artists and audiences from across the globe to celebrate the power of the human voice in its most intimate form.

Each year, Leeds Song offer a dynamic programme of concert season events with partners at Opera North, the University of Leeds, Leeds International Concert Series and Leeds Conservatoire. Their boundary-breaking Festival reaches huge numbers via livestreams, as well as in person, and they take recitals into the heart of the city, juxtaposing work in beautiful concert halls with recitals in unusual spaces not normally associated with classical music. Their award-winning and constantly expanding education programme in schools begins a pipeline that introduces young people to the joys of singing, and leads on to a Young Artist programme that draws singers and pianists from across the world to Leeds to take place in specially curated series of masterclasses.