Ruby Hughes soprano, Joseph Middleton piano

Commissioning new works at Leeds Lieder was a founding tenet of the organisation. Recent years have seen major cycles written by Hannah Kendall, Mark Simpson, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Daniel Kidane and a host of other leading voices. Tonight Leeds Lieder unveils Deborah Pritchard’s The World.

Metaphysical poetry, including that by Henry Vaughan, has inspired Deborah’s writing of this cycle, touching on themes of light, time, the transcendental, the cosmos and the human spirit. Ruby Hughes and Joseph Middleton have championed women composers throughout their award-winning partnership and here pair Pritchard with Errollyn Wallen, whose songs featured in Ema Nikolovska’s recital at Leeds Lieder 2021.

Hughes and Middleton have built an award-winning discography, the most recent recording featuring Mahler and Helen Grime and praised in Gramophone for creating “a remarkable sound world of intense intimacy that glistens with a wonderful dewy freshness… An outstanding recital.” Gramophone selected it as one of their Discs of the Year, The Times wrote “I can’t recall a recent vocal album curated and performed with such care” and The Guardian praised their “imaginative recital, beautifully executed.”

This event will also be streamed live. Watch live on YouTube 

A Leeds Lieder Festival 2022 event.