World-renowned pianist opens Leeds’ newest concert venue
One of the world’s greatest pianists, Murray Perahia, will perform at one of the finest venues in the north today in a recital marking the reopening of Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall at the University of Leeds. The hall provides a unique concert venue for the University and region, thanks to a renovation made possible by the donation of £1.37m from the Clothworkers’ Foundation.

Dr Perahia will perform works by Beethoven and Brahms on a new Steinway concert grand piano donated by Arnold and Marjorie Ziff. The hall will be one of the region’s foremost chamber music venues, providing state-of-the-art rehearsal and performance facilities for the University and community organisations ranging from local schools to professional companies.
School of music head Professor David Cooper, said: “The Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall is a jewel in the University’s crown and one of the most attractive concert venues in the region. It is a beautiful building with a high quality of décor and a warm acoustic. The newly-refurbished hall will be a great boost for the University and of enormous benefit to students as both performers and audience.”

The renovation is another example of the generosity of the Clothworkers’ Foundation, which has supported the University since its beginnings. The Company was instrumental in the foundation of the University’s forerunner, the Yorkshire College of Science, in 1874. It has provided grants providing teaching and research facilities, chairs, scholarships, support for Leeds’ internationally-acclaimed textile archive and the conversion which created the Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall in 1974.

Murray Perahia is one of the world’s most highly-regarded pianists, with a reputation as a musician of great sensitivity. He came to prominence after winning the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1972. The following year, he performed at the Aldeburgh Festival and began a fruitful collaboration with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. He has performed with all the world’s major orchestras, and is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music.

Dr Perahia was awarded an honorary KBE earlier this year in recognition of his outstanding service to music. At the Centenary Concert he will perform Beethoven’s Sonata in A major Op.101 and Johannes Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a theme of Handel Op.24.

The renovation of the Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall has increased audience capacity from 200 to just under 300 by moving the stage and restoring a gallery hidden since the original conversion. New retractable tiered seating gives a better view and improved acoustics, with modern standards of access. Recording and broadcasting equipment has been installed and 12 rehearsal rooms built into the hall’s basement.

The renovation, designed by architects Harrogate Design Group, enhances the original features of the hall, which was built in 1879 as a Presbyterian chapel and converted into a concert hall in the 1970s to celebrate the centenary of the Yorkshire College.
The Centenary Concert is one of a number of events marking 100 years since the University gained its Royal Charter in 1904.

Photocall

Murray Perahia, will be available for press photographs at 1pm on Friday June 25 in the newly-refurbished Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall during a break in rehearsals.

Please assemble at 1pm in the school of music reception on the campus at Cavendish Road, Leeds. Car parking is available.
Also available at the photocall will be professor of performance studies Graham Barber and two music PhD students, both gifted pianists; David Mawson from New Zealand and Mariko Ono from Japan.

For more information contact: Vanessa Bridge 0113 343 4030, 07711 969223, email v.bridge@leeds.ac.uk; Hannah Love 0113 343 4100, email h.e.b.love@leeds.ac.uk

See events

See the University's centenary web pages