00:00My name is Joseph Middleton and I'm the director of Leeds Song, which is a festival based in Leeds
00:05which takes place every April. This year it's from the 11th to the 18th of April
00:10and we are taking over all kinds of venues all across Leeds to put across a really vibrant,
00:16diverse festival of song. Leeds Song was actually born in 2004 by a group of friends who worked at
00:24this fantastic place, Opera North, and they wanted to bring some of the world's finest
00:28artists to Leeds rather than always having to come down to London to hear big names.
00:34And 20 plus years on it's still going strong, in fact it's grown and grown and this year in Leeds
00:42will bring some of the world's finest artists literally from all over the world. They'll come
00:47to Leeds and they will perform an incredible range of songs that span from extremely early songs
00:55accompanied by the lute all the way through to songs that were written literally last week for
01:00the people of Leeds. We are really passionate about bedding into the local community as well.
01:06So one of the projects that we've done for the last few years is called a Leeds Songbook and this
01:12is
01:12incredible. This brings together 10 poets local to Leeds. They all write about somebody from Leeds, they tell
01:21the story of somebody living in Leeds. These texts are then clothed in sound by 10 postgraduate
01:28composers that we bring from all over Britain. A group of 10 visual artists will then reflect on these
01:35songs. During the festival there's the opportunity to hear them being workshopped and then they're
01:41performed by 20 young artists. These are amazing pianists and singers that we bring from all over the
01:50world as well. They come and study with us for a week. They are part of the pipeline that we
01:55show
01:55from young artists all the way through to some of the world's greatest artists and what you end up with
02:01is this incredible melting pot of creativity and conversation. Leeds is this wonderfully diverse, vibrant,
02:10eclectic place in which to live and work and the type of artists that we bring here reflect that and
02:16the
02:16type of music that they sing and play also feeds into that as well and for me there's nothing quite
02:22like being in a space with an incredible voice. One of the things that I really love about Song is
02:28the
02:28possibility that it can connect us. It's a fantastic way of looking back to our past and also looking to
02:35the future and taking stock of where we sit right now. It's an amazing art form because it allows us
02:42to really
02:42dig deep into what it means to be alive right now to discuss some of the most vital parts of
02:51the human
02:52condition. It's a space where you can be really mindful, you put your phone down and you really connect with
02:57others.
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