Leeds Lieder inspires hundreds of children to discover and engage with classical song and excellent singing practice through their award-winning education projects: Discovering Lieder and Living Lieder (formerly Cool Lieder).
We offer exciting opportunities for young people in primary and secondary schools across Leeds to broaden their cultural horizons, explore their talents, discover and develop their voices through a series of specially devised projects.
We promote access to classical music for people who would not otherwise have the opportunity or who may be on the fringes of society, and we strive to educate and encourage young people to engage with music in and outside of school.
We believe that a musical education is essential to the social and personal development of young people and are proud to work alongside music teachers to provide this in schools and help every child find their voice.
Discovering Lieder introduces primary school children to the joys of attending a classical concert and invites them into the wonderful world of stories and characters found in Art Song. It runs over one intensive week with a culmination concert on the Friday. Each school is visited for a one-hour session with our team who present Lieder as a fun and relevant art form and the children even write their own verse to a song by Schubert!
On the concert day 300 children from 10 schools across the Leeds come together and are treated to a concert of Lieder. They hear songs by Schubert, Poulenc, Head and Dove all in their original language and perform their very own verses to round off a wonderful week!
Living Lieder works with secondary school children to develop their musical and singing abilities whilst exploring the rich vein of Art Song. At an age where children may struggle to communicate their emotions, we encourage them to express themselves through music. The project runs over a month and involves our specialist team making three workshop visits into schools and working with participants on singing, musicianship, storytelling, creative thinking and performance practice leading towards a culmination concert.
All our projects are led by exceptional creative artists and encourage healthy bodies and minds, active imaginations, social awareness and a sense of achievement among participants.
See below for more information about our projects.
If you would like to get involved, please contact Phil Wilcox.
Discovering Lieder was recently chosen as a recipient of an ACA Member’s 2019 Award.
Read more about the award here.
Discovering Lieder
Be inspired by the creative experience of exploring songs and words of great composers and poets; use your own instrument – the voice – to engage with great art and to create your own songs.
Living Lieder
Explore and share musical ideas and develop aural awareness. Discover how notation, chord sequences, beat, time signature and melodic shape are used to create a sound-world and shape a story and that you don’t need a microphone to produce a mind-blowing vocal sound!
Discovering Lieder
Classical Song Project for KS2
An interactive introduction to classical song and attending a concert.
The Discovering Lieder Project runs for one intensive week when each primary school is visited for one hour by our team before being invited to attend a grand culmination concert. During this hour the children explore the joys of attending a concert of Art Song and the artists help to present Lieder as a fun and relevant artform, full of characters and stories, that can excite the imagination and stimulate the mind.
On the concert day over 300 children aged 9-11 from 10 schools across the Leeds area fill the concert hall and are treated to a programme of Lieder. Our three workshop artists perform songs by Schubert, Poulenc, Head and Dove all in their original language. A picture selected for each song is beamed onto a big screen behind the stage and the children are not given written translations of the texts, allowing their imaginations to run wild! In what’s definitely a Leeds Lieder Education tradition, the concert finale is a mass-sing of Schubert’s Das Wandern, with each class singing their own verse specially written by them in the workshop sessions.
Here’s an example verse (to the tune of Das Wandern, Schubert):
Once there was a little girl skipping in the wood.
‘Round the corner was her friend, Red Riding Hood.
Jolly men in the pub dancing to an Irish jig,
An alpaca, a llama, a pig in a wig.
They took the yellow-brick-road
To a ball hosted by a toad!
We would like to say a big “Thank you” to staff and children from the participating schools:
Adel Primary
Allerton C of E Primary
Bankside Primary
Beeston Primary
Blackgates Primary
Blenheim Primary
Burley St Matthias Primary
Calverley Parkside Primary
Castleton Primary*
Chapel Allerton Primary*
Cross Gates Primary
Fulneck
Gildersome Primary
Gledhow Primary
Grimes Dyke Primary*
Harehills Primary
Harewood Primary
Hawksworth Wood Primary
Holy Rosary and St Anne’s RC
Hugh Gaitskell
Hunslet Moor Primary
Low Road & Windmill Music Federation
Meanwood Primary
Middleton Primary
Mill Field Primary
Quarry Mount Primary
Seacroft Grange
Shire Oak CE Primary
St Anthony’s Catholic
St Francis Bradford
Stanningley Primary
Summerfield
Weetwood Primary*
Westerton Primary*
Westgate Primary
Westwood Primary
Whinmoor St Paul’s Primary
White Laith Primary*
Wyebeck
* included as part of annual music provision
Discovering Lieder workshops and concert are free to participating schools.
We’d love your school to get involved so, if you’re interested in taking part in future projects, please get in touch!
Living Lieder
Classical Song Project for KS3
Discover some of the great composers’ repertoire of songs and perform them in choirs, small ensembles or as soloists.
The Living Lieder Project involves our specialist team making several visits into secondary schools to rehearse participants for a grand culmination concert. Three artists, two musicians and a creative writer, make three workshop visits into each school and work with the children on singing, musicianship, storytelling, creative thinking and performance practice. Teachers are encouraged to be actively involved, teaching and rehearsing the songs with their students in between visits by the creative team.
On the concert day over 150 children aged 12-14 from 6 schools across the Leeds area come together to share a fantastic programme of Art Song. Each group is encouraged to perform with confidence and expression, and we are always struck and moved by the quality of both the singing and the listening that occurs.
We would like to say a big “Thank you” to staff and children from the participating schools:
Abbey Grange CE Academy
Allerton Grange
Allerton High School
Bradford Academy
Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School
Carr Manor Community School
Cockburn School
Corpus Christi Catholic College
Crawshaw Academy
Grammar School at Leeds
Guiseley School
Lawnswood School
Leeds Jewish Free School
Morley Academy
Prince Henry’s Grammar School, Otley
Pudsey Grangefield
Ralph Thoresby
Rodillian Academy
Roundhay Academy
Roundhay School
St Mary’s, Menston
Woodhouse Grove, Bradford
Living Lieder workshops and concert are free to participating schools.
We’d love your school to get involved so, if you’re interested in taking part in future projects, please get in touch!