Leeds Conservatoire School of Music and Education

🎭 Pit Band Opportunity – Beauty and the Beast 🎶

Leeds Grand Youth Theatre is looking for student musicians for their upcoming production of Beauty and the Beast at the City Varieties Music Hall (24th-26th July with rehearsals) working with Musical Theatre Lecturer and MD Jacob Savage.

Instruments needed:
• Reed Players (Clarinet, Oboe and/or English Horn)
• Horn
• Trumpet
• Percussion
• Violin
• Cello
• Bass

A great opportunity to gain pit band experience, work with a professional creative team, and expand your network with money towards expenses.

For full details, dates, and how to apply, please see the post on Life Life @ Leeds Conservatoire

Leeds Song: Dame Sarah Connolly and Joseph Middleton - “Kathleen’s Songbook”

19/06
19:00-21:00
Leeds Conservatoire
Book tickets now (free for students and under 30s)

Originally planned as a closing recital for the 2026 Festival, we are delighted to welcome Leeds Song Patron and the UK’s foremost mezzo-soprano, Dame Sarah Connolly alongside Leeds Song Director Joseph Middleton to give a very special recital, dedicated to Kathleen Evans BEM, current Chair and former Festival Administrator. Kathleen retires from her position as Chair this summer, and in recognition of all the time, dedication and passion she has given to the organisation over many years, this programme is made up of her favourite songs and poems: music that celebrates, inspires, consoles and uplifts.

Leeds Song

🔦 Alumni Spotlight: Fred Harper 🔦

Fred Harper is a drummer, producer, facilitator and musical director whose work spans performance, education and community music. After attending the BRIT School in London, he graduated from Leeds Conservatoire with a First Class BA (Hons) in Music, studying drums with Dave Walsh and latin percussion with Jesse Bannister—two teachers whose influence continues to shape his playing.

After graduating, Fred spent a year gigging on the Leeds scene before moving to London, where his early career included theatre tours in the Netherlands and work in show bands on cruise ships. He later travelled to Brazil for six months to study
Brazilian percussion, focusing on pandeiro and Afro-Brazilian folkloric drumming traditions.

As a performer he has appeared everywhere from the Royal Albert Hall and Ronnie Scott’s to Glastonbury, and has toured extensively across the UK and Europe with acts including folk/highlife/reggae group Me And My Friends and The Daft Punk Orchestra, including a 40-date residency at XOYO in London with the latter. He has also worked extensively in theatre and comedy, co-directing a sold-out 30-night run with hip-hop improviser Abandoman at the Edinburgh Fringe and later serving as musical director and house bandleader on Sky One’s Late Late Show with Deirdre O’Kane.

Alongside his performing career, Fred has developed a strong commitment to community music. During the COVID-19 pandemic he collaborated with the charity SENSE to develop an innovative online workshop format for deaf and hearing- disabled participants, using vibrating body packs to enable remote musical interaction. He also works extensively with the organisation Finding Rhythms, leading music projects within prisons and across the criminal justice system helping participants write, record and release albums, many of which have won awards.

Jazz Choir 📸

✨ Highlights from Leeds Conservatoire Jazz Choir’s performance at Leeds Jazz Festival

Led by Principal Lecturer Becca Wilkins, singers from our Jazz course took to the stage at The Attic for an afternoon celebrating the power of ensemble singing and jazz vocal performance.

Well done to everyone involved and keep an eye out for more performances in the future!

Opus13 - Quartet in Residence

16/06/26
19:30 (Doors 19:00)
Leeds Conservatoire

We’re thrilled to welcome Opus13 as our new Quartet in Residence. Thanks to our continuing partnership with Wigmore Hall, every three years we bring a world-class string quartet to Leeds for nine exciting performances.

Whether you’re a long-time chamber music lover or discovering it for the first time, this is the perfect opportunity to experience the next generation of outstanding performers.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quartet No 19 (Dissonance)
Britta Byström Images from the Floating World
Edvard Grieg Quartet No 1, Op 27

Sonoko Miriam Welde - violin
Edvard Erdal - violin
Albin Uusijärvi - viola
Daniel Thorell - cello

My Fair Lady 🎶

11/06/26 - 13/06/26
14:30 & 19:30
Leeds Conservatoire

Lerner and Loewe’s beloved My Fair Lady tells the timeless story of Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower seller whose chance encounter with the brilliant but stubborn Professor Henry Higgins changes both their lives in unexpected ways. 

This special concert staging, performed with the full Leeds Conservatoire School of Music orchestra, brings the classic score to life in all its splendour.

🎷 NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR JAZZ MUSICIANS 🎺

Leeds Conservatoire alumnus Fergus Quill is launching NYJO North, a new ensemble project exploring the music of Carla Bley through rehearsals, performance opportunities and professional development.

Open to instrumentalists and vocalists aged 18–25, with paid performance opportunities and travel bursaries available.

👉 Visit for full details and application information

Nurturing Q***r Creatives 🎵

Thursday 4th, 11:00am to 6:00pm
FREE
Brodrick Hall

In collaboration with Come Play With Me, we invite you to this special Social Insights Symposium.

This day will include workshops, panels and talks exploring how LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming histories within the creative arts, music, performance and music education have been experienced, as part of Leeds Conservatoire’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

Grounded in archival moments, lived histories and contemporary practice, the event creates space for respectful, reflective dialogue on safety, visibility, creative expression and belonging within music and the performing arts.

Find out more and share your work for feedback during the workshop via Life

🔦Alumni Spotlight: Fergus Quill 🔦

Bassist, composer and bandleader Fergus Quill has forged a reputation as a relentlessly creative and deeply prolific artist. Both a vital part of the Leeds music scene and a national name, in recent years he has been the recipient of the Musicians’ Company 2022 Tina May Jazz Award and 2023 Peter Whittingham Jazz Award.

Fergus is perhaps best known as leader and composer of genre-bending ensemble Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band. The anarchic 25+ strong group credited with “dragging big band music kicking and screaming into the 21st century” has released an eponymous studio album and a live album recorded at 2024’s Lancaster Jazz Festival and was nominated for the 2025 Jazz FM Innovation Award. The band has recently played shows at Ronnie Scott’s, The Vortex and Howard Assembly Rooms, and their new album ‘The New Atomic’ is out 26 May.

His other outfits include Fergus Quill Trio with fellow alumni Theo Goss and Nico Widdowson, Fergus Quill’s Electric Noise Ensemble and an acclaimed tribute project to cult Leeds jazz-punk hero Xero Slingsby (which was featured in a BBC 6 Music live session for DJ Deb Grant).

These numerous ensembles have performed at festivals including The London Jazz Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival, Leeds Jazz Festival and A Love Supreme. His works have been praised in
publications including Jazzwise, Jazz Journal, The Big Issue and GQ Magazine.

As a collaborator he has worked extensively with composer and trumpeter Sam Eastmond (including a tour in Mexico performing the works of John Zorn), British improvising legend Evan Parker, James Mainwaring and Olivia Cutill. Fergus has arranged big band charts for the legendary Shirley Bassey and is an educator for and alumni of National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO).

Crash Records Presents: Ed O’Brien

To celebrate the release of his new album ‘Blue Morpho’, Crash Records and Transgressive Records present:

Ed O’Brien in conversation with Deb Grant (tbc) and the screening of a new short film Blue Morpho: The Three Act Play.

Crash have set up special bundles for this release where fans can purchase an album on any format and get a ticket for this exclusive event.