Music-lovers amongst the Great Yorkshire Public have spoken – and have sung the praises of Diocese of Leeds’s Schools Singing Programme, as for the first time ever, the Royal Philharmonic Society allowed the public to nominate musicians who had inspired them during...

This Sunday (19th July) at 8:10am, the BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship programme features hymns and motets from CDs recorded by the Leeds Diocesan Choirs.

Our Director of the Schools Singing Programme Tom Leech writes for the Incorporated Society of Musicians blog – how we will not let the pandemic destroy the musical futures of the children we work with and how we must not let choral/classical music become even more unequal. There’s still so much to do, and it is under such threat.

On Sunday 12th July at 3pm we will be releasing a video broadcast across our YouTube channels featuring new recordings created in lockdown, and prayers and reflections from the Bishop and clergy. Sing together with the Choirs and community of the Diocese of Leeds in prayer and praise.

The global pandemic has made all instrumental teachers drastically rethink the ways in which they can deliver high-quality, engaging teaching. In the Diocese of Leeds, we had to respond quickly to the enforced lockdown and consequent closure of schools: how could the many children within our Organists’ Training  Programme remain engaged, focussed and musically stimulated?

David Pipe, Artistic Director and Ben Saunders, Diocesan Director of Music discuss the upcoming LIOF Live.

We’re delighted that the billed Monday recitalists for Leeds International Organ Festival 2020 are generously providing video and audio clips for us to broadcast on our LIOF YouTube channel each week, so that everyone can enjoy these world-class performers from the comfort of their own homes.

Tune in each Monday at 1.15 pm to lioflive.org.uk for Leeds International Organ Festival Live.

In mid-March, members of the Leeds Cathedral Junior Choirs and Children’s Choir had been enjoying learning songs for our Spring Concert and were excited about the performance.  Some of us were becoming slightly anxious about the progress of Coronavirus around the world, but we generally continued as normal, singing a full choral Mass as recently as 15th March, albeit with extra hygiene measures in place and a few children missing.