OPENS IN OCTOBER WITH AN EXCITING PROGRAMME

The Howard Assembly Room, Opera North’s historic “hidden gem” concert hall within Leeds Grand Theatre, will reopen this October with an expanded programme and its own front door, as the Company’s £18M redevelopment campaign Music Works nears completion.

The inaugural line-up features folk, jazz, world and experimental music, chamber concerts and film screenings, but also looks closer to home with appearances from Opera North’s Orchestra, Chorus and guest singers, and events for families and the community. Opera North’s status as a Theatre of Sanctuary will also be reflected in a range of initiatives and special events ensuring a welcoming and inclusive space for all including refugee and asylum seeker groups.

The auditorium, with its spectacular gilt, barrel-vaulted roof and leaded windows, first opened in 1879 as a respectable alternative to Leeds’ music halls, hosting concerts, conjuring shows, variety performances and public meetings. At the time, Leeds Daily News noted its ‘very warm and cosy appearance’, and ‘particularly good acoustic qualities’. After spells as a fleapit cinema and a store during the following century, it reopened as the Howard Assembly Room in 2009. Its intimate atmosphere and sound had been further enhanced by Opera North’s sensitive restoration, and over the next decade it became a favourite destination for everything from Lieder recitals to thundering electronica.

Few changes have been made to the space itself since it was shuttered as part of Music Works in 2019, but the redevelopment project has finally given the Assembly Room its own dedicated entrance on New Briggate; an elegant new glazed atrium for refreshments and socialising; improved and fully accessible front-of-house facilities, and a new restaurant in the former shop units beneath it, due to be unveiled just after the venue itself. Alongside it, Opera North’s redeveloped headquarters, the Howard Opera Centre, now shares the name of the publisher, philanthropist and benefactor Dr Keith Howard OBE.

Dominic Gray, Projects Director, Opera North, comments:
“As the world re-opens to live music, we are thrilled to be back in the Howard Assembly Room to welcome audiences new and old to share music with us in this fabulous building. On our stage we welcome back musicians who have been with us from the start, including Gavin Bryars, Seckou Keita, The Brodsky Quartet and The Tiger Lillies, returning guests including Hollie McNish and Gweneth Ann Rand, and many artists who are new to the HAR, such as Joachim Cooder, Byron Wallen and Simon Armitage.

“With a season which includes both The Great American Songbook and The Great Jamaican Songbook, and musicians playing gamelan, oud, the musical saw and instruments made of ice, we are confident we’ve got your autumn covered for musical adventure.”

Tickets for all events at the Howard Assembly Room are available to book online now at howardassemblyroom.co.uk. 

Picture by Justin Slee