Where music is heard at its best: Unique venues for live music in Leeds
Music Patron composer Ben Gaunt takes us through his favourite places to listen to live music in his home city, Leeds.
The Venue, Leeds Conservatoire
There are lots of performance spaces at Leeds Conservatoire, but The Venue is probably my favourite; great sound, superb tech, and a friendly, welcoming environment.
Full disclosure: I work at Leeds Conservatoire (and thus I am 100% biased) but this is honestly a great place for music.
I used to teach at the LJC Saturday School, and the Christmas and Summer concerts are some of my fondest memories as an educator. The conservatoire is always a vibrant place, but when the youngsters are in on Saturdays it really comes to life!
There are lots of performance spaces at Leeds Conservatoire, but The Venue is probably my favourite; great sound, superb tech, and a friendly, welcoming environment. Students frequently perform here, but it is also home to the International Chamber Season, International Piano Series and Wednesday Lunchtime Chamber Music Series. Please, come and visit!
Wharf Chambers
This place is bizarre, beautiful… it’s quite hard to describe. I looked at their website to see if they could help me pin down exactly what it is they do. At the time of writing, their next event is described as “Pro Wrestling, Drag, and More”. I think this encapsulates Wharf Chambers perfectly.
This place is bizarre, beautiful… it’s quite hard to describe.
Places That Aren’t Really Concert Venues...
Leeds City Museum
I think it might have been the best place I’ve ever performed; playing a piano, surrounded by pianos.
OK, this is definitely cheating, but some of my favourite places to hear music in Leeds aren’t conventional concert venues.
I’ve seen (and been involved in) concerts at the Royal Armouries, the Leeds Art Gallery… there are pianos at the train station, in the market… there’s music everywhere!
In 2024, Leeds International Piano Competition decided to use Leeds City Museum as a venue for their fantastic Piano Trail Festival.
Installed in its main hall was the Pianodrome Amphitheatre; circular seating made entirely out of second-hand pianos, with multiple playable pianos hidden within. I think it might have been the best place I’ve ever performed; playing a piano, surrounded by pianos.
Watch Ben perform a movement from his piece Filey Brigg at the Pianodrome, as part of Piano Trail Festival 2024
And further afield?
York Unitarian Chapel and York Late Music
There is something about this venue, and York Late Music itself, that is so joyful and friendly.
They might be close to each other, geographically speaking, but York and Leeds are like chalk and cheese (rhyme intended!).
On Saturdays, York is a very busy place; tourists everywhere, ghost walks, street musicians, queues for the tearoom. I love it! A few minutes way from all this chaos, not far from the wonderfully named ‘Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate’, down St. Saviourgate, is the York Unitarian Chapel.
York Unitarian Chapel is a beautiful building on a very quiet street. Perfect for concerts, it is the home of York Late Music, an organisation that focuses on 20th/21st Century music and has supported the premieres of a huge number of new works.
There is something about this venue, and York Late Music itself, that is so joyful and friendly. After a concert, audience members, performers, composers, organisers might go for a post-gig drink and it really is a lot of fun; it breaks down those artificial barriers between performers/audience and makes contemporary music more approachable.
