Festival launch for Leeds College Of Music

Leeds College of Music is launching a new festival aimed at showcasing acts who take bold new approaches to sound.
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Sounds Like THIS will run from March 14 to March 24 across three of Leeds’ most eclectic venues; Belgrave Music Hall, Arts@Trinity, and The Venue at Leeds College of Music.

The schedule incorporates electronic, classical, electroacoustic, opera and immersive visual installation, all within one boundary-pushing, ten day bill.

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Headliners include acclaimed ambient electronic producer and BBC 6Music favourite Rival Consoles, an artist renowned for his pervasive, thoughtful electronica and atmospheric synth sound. Gabriel Prokofiev returns to Leeds with his extraordinary Nonclassical Club Night, fusing live classical instruments with electronica in a club setting.

Sharing the bill with Rival Consoles are Sally Rodgers and Steve Jones, aka groundbreaking techno duo A Man Called Adam, an act whose career spans three decades and who have been a defining influence within Acid-Jazz, Balearic House, Chill-out and Nu-Disco.

Also on the stellar electronic line-up is Danny Saul, one of Manchester’s most prolific, recognised and critically acclaimed electronic musicians, who uses MAXMSP coding to deliver his battering assault of unfathomable beats.

A stunning contemporary production of Benjamin Britten’s 1948 reworking of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera will be performed at Arts@Trinity. Directed by tour-de-force duo Geraldine Cassidy and David Cohen (Opera North), it will incorporate physical theatre and contemporary dance alongside next generation voices from Leeds College of Music; Joe Yates, Alice Dix, and Laura Howieson.

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The Theatre in Surround concerts at LCoM’s state-of-the-art auditorium, The Venue, will showcase a cutting edge electroacoustic show via an installation of high-resolution speakers.

Curated by electroacoustic musician Robert Bentall, the stellar international line-up includes the pioneering Elsa Justel with Cercles et Surface, Nikos Stavropoulos presenting Topophilia and Dale Perkins, who also launches his brand new album at the festival, Voices Without Words.

Also set to play at The Venue is Richard Scott, an internationally renowned free-improvising musician and electroacoustic composer, whose work incorporates electronics, including modular synths and controllers such as the Buchla Thunder and Lightning.

The festival culminates in the Gala Concert - an annual celebration of the next generation of musicians from Leeds College of Music.

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The grand finale will feature artists from the entire range of programmes at the conservatoire, which includes Classical Music, Jazz, Pop and Film and Production, and is set to be a stunning audio-visual feast.

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