Choir and Orchestra

Musical Director:	Peter Holman
Orchestra Leader:	Judy Tarling
Chorus Master:	Clive McClelland

Leeds Baroque is a period instrument performance group based in West Yorkshire.

Our Tenth Anniversary year in 2010 was notable for performances of Purcell’s Indian Queen in the iconic surroundings of Salts’ Mill, and of Vivaldi’s Venetian Vespers at the Clothworkers’ Hall in October.

Our 2011 programme is proving equally interesting and enjoyable: it opened in February with a rare performance of C.P.E. Bach’s St Matthew Passion — see below. This was perhaps only the second British performance of a work feared lost in World War II.

In April, the Orchestra joins the Bradford Chorale (director Paul Dewhurst) for a programme of Venetian Music, while the Summer Concert in June brings some French élan to the programme, when we explore the theatrical world of Molière with music for his plays by Lully and Charpentier.

We very much hope we will be able to welcome you to these performances. (Details and booking information are on the Concerts page.) For Friends of Leeds Baroque, we also extend a special “members only” invitation to a short concert with afternoon tea, featuring extracts from the forthcoming programme. Why not join?

And just for encouragement, here are some photographs of a recent Leeds Baroque concert!

Next concert

Sunday 12th February at 3:00 p.m.

Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall, Leeds University School of Music

Music for State Occasions

Locke – Blow – Purcell – Croft – Handel – Boyce

Leeds Baroque, directed by Peter Holman

This afternoon’s concert explores the rich vein of ceremonial music written at the behest of monarchs. The programme includes grand and stately coronation anthems by John Blow (1685), Henry Purcell (1685 and 1689) and Handel (1727), including Zadok the Priest, contrasted with Croft’s moving Burial Service, performed at state funerals ever since the early eighteenth century, and Matthew Locke’s remarkable polychoral anthem The king shall rejoice, written to celebrate a naval victory over the Dutch in 1666. The programme also includes Handel’s Overture to the Occasional Oratorio (1746), often played at later state occasions, including Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1838.

Tickets: £15 and £10 adult concessions, £5 students and young people (including interval refreshments) from the Concerts web page at the University of Leeds. Also available at the door.