&Piano returns for it’s 5th festival – celebrating amazing live classical music performed by top professional musicians from across the North of England. This year we’re celebrating the work of British composer Madeleine Dring, who wrote a number of jazzy, catch and entertaining songs, and pieces for Bassoon and Oboe, to mark the recent centenary of her birth. We have another fantastic line up, with incredible singers, musicians from Opera North, and the world premiere of a new song cycle by emerging composer Alice Beckwith setting poems by poet laureate Simon Armitage.
Click here to explore our 2024 brochure and find out more about what’s on
And you can book your tickets here – join us to discover some amazing music!
&Piano expanded it’s 2nd school tour to deliver a full week of performances around schools in Kirklees & Calderdale, helping to introduce secondary students in the region to classical music, and encouraging them to listen and explore the genre along with other genres of music they listen to regularly.
Our performers this year were saxophonist Gillian Blair, and Baritone Ed Robinson, accompanied by Chris Pulleyn on the piano. Students across Halifax, Brighouse, Elland, Huddersfield and Dewsbury were treated to performances of music by John Williams, Schumann, William Grant Still & Lucy Armstrong.
Events for the &Piano Music Festival 2023 have been announced and this year – our 5th year anniversary since our first festival – we have so many exciting events, featuring some fantastic artists lined up that everyone can enjoy – from West End Olivier-award nominated actress Emma Williams, to Piano Quintet ‘Avenue Ensemble’, featuring musicians from the Orchestra of Opera North. We have lots of events for musicians of all backgrounds and ages to get involved in too – our Young Musician Showcase returns to welcome a selection of talented young musicians from around the region, and we also present a new event – our ‘Performance Pub’ – an open-call opportunity for musicians of any background, experience and ability to perform as part of the festival. For all the details about all the events, check out our online brochure here.
Are you a musician aged 16-21 who lives or studies in Kirklees or Calderdale? &Piano wants to hear from you!
Since 2020 – at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – &Piano launched its first annual Young Musician Showcase, which gave 10 talented performers from around our region the opportunity to perform to a live virtual audience on both Facebook and Youtube. The event was a great success, both technologically, and with viewers – having been viewed over 1000 times since.
Last year, we held our first live YMS as part of our 2022 Festival, and for our 2023 festival, we are looking to give 8-10 performers the opportunity to perform a short programme of music between 8-10 minutes in a live performance to be held on Sunday May 21st 2023 at The Civic, Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, and the opportunity to record one piece for a digital version of our Young Musician Showcase, to be shown on Facebook and Youtube at a later date.
Please consider applying if you are:
- between 16-21 years old.
- grade 7 or above standard on any instrument (including piano but excluding organ) or as a singer (classical & musical theatre)
- living or studying in Kirklees or Calderdale (or you have a non-term-time address in Kirklees or Calderdale – for example when not at university)
- You don’t need to be studying music as an academic subject at school/college/university.
You will need to be available for a 45 minute rehearsal with our accompanist on Saturday 13th May (at The Civic, Slaithwaite) where you will have the opportunity to have 30 minutes to rehearse your programme, after which we’ll record one piece.
To apply please send:
- Your name, locality (area you are from or where you study), your age, the instrument you play, and who you study with (your instrument teacher)
- The proposed pieces you would like to perform (totalling to around 8-10 minutes)
- A video (with or without accompaniment) of you performing a short piece (this can be a piece you would intend to perform, or a different piece) on your instrument.
Here are a few tips on making a good video:
- Make sure we can clearly see you and your instrument in the video
- The video or sound does not need to be professional or fancy. Filming on a smartphone or tablet is absolutely fine. You do not need to dress up/dress formal, but looking reasonably smart makes a good impression!
- Briefly introduce yourself and the piece you are going to play – the name and the composer
- Make sure it’s a piece that equally shows off your ability but that you are also comfortable playing.
The deadline for applications is at 6pm on March 6th. We will acknowledge receipt of every entry, and successful applications will be informed by email.
If you are under 18 you will need permission to apply from a parent or guardian.
When selecting our performers we’ll be considering ability as well as looking to create a balanced programme of different instruments, singers and repertoire – it won’t feature 10 of the same instrument!
There is no fee to apply, and if you are not successful this time, then you’ll be welcome to apply again to another potential YMS event providing you still fit all the criteria.
Send your video* and requested information, or any questions you might have to Jenny Pulleyn: jenny@andpiano.co.uk.
*You can send your video as a Google Drive link, an unlisted YouTube link, or as a file via www.wetransfer.com.
&Piano takes the safety and protection of participants very seriously. Please find our Safeguarding Policy here. Videos and personal data will all be deleted from our records after the event in line with GDPR regulations.
In an exciting first-time collaboration with the Huddersfield Literature Festival and as part of the Kirklees Year of Music 2023, join us at The Civic, Slaithwaite, for an evening of songs featuring words and poetry exploring the theme of music, and the constant power and influence it has had on our lives for generations.
Music has been a source of inspiration for authors around the world, for centuries, attempting to put into words the feeling and effect that music has on themselves and society.
Pianist Christopher Pulleyn is joined by two exciting young singers, soprano Georgie Malcolm and baritone Billy Kyle, who will perform a programme of music exploring how composers have used texts to express in words their own love for their craft. Featuring music and words from poets and composers from around the world and as far back as the 17th Century, including music by Purcell, Schubert, Debussy and Britten and words and poetry by Shakespeare, John Dryden, Edith Sitwell and Sister Helen Prejean.
The performance will be approximately an hour long with no interval. Join us for refreshments after the performance!
Click here to book your tickets now!
Thanks to the generous support of the Liz & Terry Bramall Foundation, &Piano delivered it’s very first Schools Performance Tour around Huddersfield and Halifax, presenting secondary school students with the opportunity to listen to live classical music performed by locally based professional musicians actively working in the industry.
This project is the start of what we hope will be an annual opportunity for schools across the region, giving young people the opportunity to be introduced to classical music and encourage them to explore the wealth of amazing music out there, amongst other forms and styles of music they might regularly listen to. We also use the opportunity to promote the many benefits of listening to classical music for students’ wellbeing, for example: as a tool for mindfulness, an opportunity to focus and switch off from an increasingly busy and complicated world, and great music to listen to when studying.
Featuring Violinist Tom Greed (Opera North, Avenue Ensemble) and Mezzo Soprano Morgana Jones (recent winner of the Frederick Cox and Strauss Prize at the RNCM, currently performing at Welsh National Opera and Buxton International Festival), they performed music by Bach, Brahms, Rossini, Strauss and Rebecca Clarke and others. Throughout the performance the performers gave students the opportunity to respond to the music, asking them questions about how it made them feel, or what they found interesting to listen to or observe.
Over the past week we visited schools including Salendine Nook High School, Colne Valley Academy & Newsome Academy in Kirklees, and Brighouse High School & Park Lane Academy in Calderdale, performing to 500 secondary school students between the age of 13-18. We were thrilled that all the students we performed to listened really attentively and engaged with the music we performed. As one teacher told our artists at the end of one of our performances “This is without a doubt the first time some of our students will have heard this kind of music”
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity for &P HQ – three weekends filled with fantastic music making by amazing musicians – and it’s been great to get back to some live music making with fantastic audiences.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along to support, listen, and enjoy. From Musical Theatre favourites from shows like Wicked, Oliver! & Chicago, to evocative Spanish chivalric songs by Jacques Ibert & romantic gems by Richard Strauss, to the dark searching of Shostakovitch’s Cello sonata, to the fun and fireworks of Beethoven’s Clarinet Trio – and in between that – a journey into outer space with music by Anton Webern, Thea Musgrave & Franz Schubert, and eight fantastic performances by a group of very talented promising young musicians.
Next year will be the 5th anniversary since &Piano was established, as well as part of the Kirklees 2023 Year of Music, so next year is going to be a real good’un…! Check out some of the shots taken at the festival in our latest gallery, and make sure you keep up to date by signing up to our mailing list here
Over two years since our last festival, we’re delighted to announce that the &Piano Music Festival is back, returning with a wonderful mix of music featuring fantastic performers over three weekends.
In addition to our three main events – Musical Theatre on Sunday 1st May at 3pm, Song on Friday 6th May at 7:30pm and Instrumental on Saturday 14th May at 7:30pm – we have a day full of events for people of all ages to enjoy and experience live music on Saturday 7th May, starting with our Family&Piano event at 11am, where we’ll be taking our audience on a journey into outer space, with soprano Charlotte Trepass, and cellist Stephen Laidlaw, and then we’ll be presenting a completely free relaxed performance in the afternoon for anyone to enjoy and drop in at 2pm, later followed by our first live Young Musician Showcase in the evening at 7:30pm, featuring talented young musicians from Greenhead College, Huddersfield New College and Huddersfield University.
Visit our ‘What’s On’ page to learn more about all these events and book your tickets today!
Earlier this year &Piano was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to record in the wonderful Huddersfield Town Hall – a venue usually bustling with activity from concerts to wedding receptions.
To help us get ready for action, starting to prepare to come back to live performances, as well as to help whet your musical appetite in anticipation of our next festival in May 2022, we invited two performers to offer a short selection of varied pieces and songs, to give you a flavour of what to expect from them when they perform live next year.
Our first Town Hall Session, featuring Musical Theatre performer Marie Collins will be released this coming Wednesday, 28th July at 7pm on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. Featuring songs from Andrew Lloyd-Weber, Stephen Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown and Rodgers & Hammerstein, it’s a fantastically varied programme that shows how musical theatre has evolved over the decades!
To make sure you don’t miss it, check out and follow our Facebook page here.
Or visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel here.
The video will be live at 7pm on Wednesday July 28th 2021.
After receiving plenty of excellent applications, our Young Musician Showcase for 2021 is here! Check out the video below to hear nine wonderful performances from talented young musicians from across Kirklees and Calderdale.
If you are, or know of a talented, passionate young musician who would like to apply for next year’s Young Musician Showcase (hopefully done as a live performance…!) then keep an eye out early next year for more information.
Filmed in our home of Slaithwaite Civic Hall, for some of these musicians – following a very tumultuous and challenging past year – this was the first opportunity they had had in over 12 months to perform with a live pianist. From cello to voice, it’s another really varied and fantastic selection of pieces for you to explore. Give it a listen!