The Leeds International Piano Competition (LIPC) announces the Leeds Piano Trail Festival for 2024
The Leeds International Piano Competition (LIPC) has announced The Leeds Piano Trail Festival for 2024, which introduces The Leeds’ Sessions, Live @ the Pianodrome for the first time
The Leeds International Piano Competition (LIPC) has announced The Leeds Piano Trail Festival for 2024, which introduces The Leeds’ Sessions, Live @ the Pianodrome for the first time.
Leeds International Piano Competition is one of the world’s best-known music competitions, and since its inception in 1963 has attracted exceptional young pianists from around the globe. The festival's program explores music's role in health and well-being through performances by Britain's biggest stars, workshops, free piano lessons, Competition broadcasts, and family play sessions.
The University of Leeds is the principal partner for the Competition, with many events taking place at the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures’ School of Music.
New for 2024 is The Leeds’ Sessions, Live @ the Pianodrome – a specially created 150-seat amphitheatre, built entirely from discarded pianos and repurposed as tiered seating, staircases, balustrades and balconies by LIPC Artists in Resonance Pianodrome. This will be the main venue at Leeds City Museum’s Brodrick Hall, hosting an array of public events and serving as a community hub for the Competition in August and September.
Launching the new series at the Pianodrome on 31 August are stars of Channel 4’s The Piano, Lucy Illingworth and Brad Keller, performing together in public for the first time since after their moving performances on the TV show.
The Leeds’ Sessions also include a performance of I, Clara: Clara Schumann – A Life in Music on 14 September, featuring award-winning actress Dame Harriet Walter (Succession, Ted Lasso) and pianist Lucy Parham.
In addition to the concerts at the amphitheatre, the festival will immerse the city of Leeds in music and art as Pianodrome bring back their beloved piano sculptures and new commissions to accompany the Leeds Piano Trail. The Leeds and Bradford public pianos are sited in shopping malls, schools, bus & train stations, and hospitals across the region. An estimated 1.8m people will hear and play the pianos in 2024.
One of the newly commissioned works is Piano Planters, which will see LIPC and Pianodrome work with community groups and local volunteers across Leeds and Bradford, who are invited to dismantle Besbrode Piano’s stock of instruments that are past their ‘play-by date’ to turn into planters to grow plants, fruits and vegetables. Other newly commissioned works include Piano Bikes and Bike Racks, joining five other sculptures – Sinking Pianos, Piano Cube, Sand of Time, Elephant in the Room, and Resonance Chamber - across the trail.
Fiona Sinclair, CEO of The Leeds International Piano Competition, said:
“The Leeds Piano Trail Festival will prove once again that Leeds truly is the city of the piano. Our role is to unearth hidden talent and inspire through music, and the universal thread between all our pianists is music’s central role in their own health and well-being. This is beautifully captured in the inspirational stories of Brad and Lucy, winners of The Piano – we cannot think of a better way to launch this incredible festival than celebrating the power of the public piano and the extraordinary stories behind the people that play them. At The Leeds, we are committed to making the piano accessible to everyone, and we invite as many people as possible to come to the Leeds Piano Trail Festival to play, listen, learn, and immerse themselves in the beauty of this wonderful instrument.”
Full details of The Leeds International Piano Competition 2024 can be found at LeedsPiano.com
For all press enquiries relating to The Leeds International Piano Competition, please contact Premier PR: Yasmin Hoy (yasmin.hoy@premiercomms.com) & Victoria Bevan (victoria.bevan@premiercomms.com).
