Everything evolves, and everything is connected. As we open the doors on our 20^th anniversary festival this April, I'm struck by how far we've come, how much we've weathered – and how excited I feel about what's next.

This milestone comes two years after the toughest period in the festival’s history. Coming out of the Pandemic, a period in which we had mounted some of the most widely viewed song concerts in the country and educated thousands of children through our innovative schools projects, we were dealt a blow in the form of our first Arts Council funding rejection. It was a hard hit, and frustrating after years of them investing in our work and allowing us to grow and become more and more ambitious, but what followed was extraordinary. What began as a moment of reckoning has become a catalyst for growth. We haven't just recovered – we've transformed.

What's in a name?

This year, we unveil a bold new programme and a new name. Leeds Lieder becomes Leeds Song. A subtle change, perhaps – but one that says a lot. We're growing. We're reaching wider audiences. And we're inviting everyone in.

I love the word Lieder – it's beautiful, evocative and describes one of the richest corners of the song repertoire. Studying, performing and recording Lieder is the backbone of my work, but I've long sensed that it can feel like a barrier to some. I have lost count of the number of times I have given interviews to national press or local radio and had to explain what the word means and how to spell it. We spend so long explaining ‘Lieder’, we often don’t have time to delve into the glories of what the art form actually is. In addition, our festival celebrates song in all its forms, not just 19th century German/Austria. It’s always been a broad canvas, from Schubert to Daniel Kidane, Helen Grime to Debussy. As Leeds Song, we continue to honour the tradition, but we also embrace the future. It's an open door.

Our rebrand coincides with our most ambitious festival yet – a week of world-class concerts, new commissions, vibrant community projects and surprising venues, all celebrating song as a vehicle for connection and transformation.

Pride in Our Community

So much of what we've achieved over the last 20 years is thanks to our community. When we had our Arts Council England application rejected in 2023, philanthropists stepped in to help underpin our work until ACE funded us again in 2024 and 2025. Audiences rallied and other music centres in the North partnered with us. The feeling of civic pride was palpable; people didn't want to let Leeds lose something it had built over decades with such care.

This is because, in part, our festival is increasingly woven throughout the city. We don't just programme exceptional concerts in world-class venues. We take song out into the community.

This year, for instance, the brilliant Erda Ensemble will explore women in music and brewing over a pint at local brewery North Brewing. At The Attic, Freddie Ballentine and Kunal Lahiry offer a deeply personal response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Our Leeds Songbook returns, pairing local poets with composers to create new works that speak directly to this city which will receive their premiere in a concert that's fast becoming one of my favourite events of the whole week.

Going even further, Gareth Malone leads our sold-out Bring and Sing! event at Leeds Minster. In one afternoon, he'll rehearse and perform Fauré's Requiem with a massed community chorus. It's a glorious, goosebump-inducing affair and another example of our brilliant Leeds community engaging with the deeply democratic act of music-making.

Opening our doors

Another mission of ours is to make our work as accessible as possible. We surtitle events to break down language barriers and we have a performance by Kitty Whately and Natalie Burch that is being signed by a British Sign Language interpreter. All events are live-streamed or recorded, so you can catch up online if you miss a live performance and these live-streams are free-to-view, breaking down financial barriers. We fundraise so that tickets for under-30s are free, and our schools outreach and community work is ever-expanding. We've had children writing their first poems and singing in public for the first time.

We're also doing everything we can to support the next generation of great singers and pianists. Our Young Artist scheme continues to flourish, and the masterclasses this year feature legendary talent – Elly Ameling, Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Felicity Lott, Amanda Roocroft, Julius Drake – all offering guidance to the next generation. Watching these figures working with our Young Artists is as inspiring as what we see on the main stage.

Why song matters

I am the first to say that art song is a niche corner of a niche genre. It is. But the rewards for engaging with it are deep and lasting. The combination of words and music allows for nuance, contradiction, intimacy. It's a medium that encourages reflection and empathy. I've seen it enrich lives and inspire joy. And I've seen it bring together people who might otherwise never cross paths.

This year's festival is titled ‘Song, the secret of eternity’ – a quote from Khalil Gibran. I think it captures something true. Songs endure. They carry memory and emotion. And they reach people across time and culture. You'll hear that in this year's line-up – in Florian Boesch's Winterreise, Christoph Prégardien's Die schöne Müllerin, in Alice Coote's blazing ‘iRebellious Recital’, in Roderick Williams’s heady ‘Touch of the exotic’ programme, and in Louise Alder's world premiere of a new work by our composer in residence Helen Grime.

Excellence is not elitism

There's still an uncomfortable tension in the UK around the word ‘elite’. It gets flung around the arts far more than sport. But just like the dancers of the Royal Ballet or players at Wimbledon, our artists are elite – and they need to be. Singing Schubert, Debussy, or Copland without a microphone, singing in multiple languages, from memory, with expressive precision and emotional openness – is Olympic-level artistry. The pianists that appear have spent decades honing a palette of colour that can illuminate every possible genre, composer and language. Our audience get the chance to experience the very best singers and pianists in the world performing in Leeds.

Looking ahead

In my 11th year as Artistic Director, I look back with enormous gratitude. I took this job because I believed passionately in the power of song – and in what it can do in a city like Leeds. I still believe it, more than ever. We have something special here: a community that values culture, a festival that continues to innovate, and a platform for some of the most exciting musical voices working today.

As Leeds Song, we step into the next chapter with joy and purpose. We are still Leeds. We are still song. And we're just getting started.

Visit www.leedssong.com for tickets and more information