Yorkshire Calling: Ben Crick on curating first Bradford Live concert for Yorkshire Day with Aled Jones and Chris Kamara

The Welsh singer recently joined the line-up Yorkshire Calling, the first evening concert to be held at the refurbished Bradford Live venue on Friday.

He has been welcomed on to a bill including Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra - the event has been curated by conductor Ben Crick - Barnsley’s renowned poet and playwright Ian McMillan, Leeds International Piano Festival finalist Yuanfan Yang and the Bantam of the Opera choir, with its ambassador and Bradford City legend, Chris Kamara.

“It tells a story, does classical music," says Ben. “This one tells our story of Yorkshire and I personally believe that classical music tells it in a way that is as more evocative and stimulating as any other art form we've ever created – that we can tell a story that's relevant to everyone in a way that speaks straight to the subconscious and speaks straight to the emotion, and can move people like no other art form can.”

Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra was revived in 2021 by Jamie Hudson, director of Vivo Entertainment, and Ben, Skipton Camerata’s artistic director, coming 66 years after the original’s demise.

Ben, who has worked with orchestras around the world, is not your usual conductor: a Huddersfield-born, proudly working class son of a council worker and a teacher, and grandson of miners.

It will be a big moment for him but also the whole city when Bradford Live opens, having stood unused for 25 years as the former Odeon and for longer than intended since its recent rennovation – the NEC Group pulled out off running it last year, but it was as announced in February that Trafalgar Entertainment would take on the £50m venue.

Ben, who lives between Keighley and Skipton, says: “I'm really, really proud to be the first evening concert at Bradford Live, this new 3,000 seater venue in the middle of Bradford. Dream gig territory, on Yorkshire Day, it’s fantastic.

“It’s been frustrating for people,” he says of the delays, “but now it's here, now it's open, let's get behind it. I'm performing initially but the next couple of gigs, I’m in the audience. Let's celebrate what we've got. Let's all use it. Enjoy it.”

Led by Ben, Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra will perform his original composition A Northern Score, featuring poems written and narrated by Ian McMillan which celebrate influential northerners through the ages.

“He does not stretch to a single heir or a single grace,” says Ben, of Ian. “He's the most down to earth person you’ll find. We both have an absolute love of where we are from. He's from Barnsley, I'm from Huddersfield, so we both have an absolute love, an absolute intuitive grasp of this area, of who we all are and we want to tell that story.”

Aled Jones will be performing a selection of songs from his long career and is looking forward to being back in God’s Own County as he has family links to the area.

“I’m really excited about that,” says Ben. “I'll tell you the truth, when it first came up, I thought what's he got to do with Yorkshire? But then I spoke to Aled, we've had a few conversations on the phone, and his wife's from Keighley and a lot of his family live up here.

“One of the things that I like about the Welsh tradition is how what you’d class as classical music is actually in everyday society, with the Eisteddfod tradition. So bringing that sort of experience, and his link to Yorkshire, up here as well is a fantastic way to try and say that, ‘Look, this art form, which might look high brow and up there, is there for everyone and available for anyone that fancies to come and have a listen’.”

After his involvement was announced Aled said he would “like to think of myself as something of an honorary Yorkshireman as my wife is Keighley born and bred, so it’s always nice to come back to my family’s second home and even better to do so and perform”.

Kamara, who has won fans and plaudits for his work raising awareness of his battle with apraxia, will be reprising his duet with Aled from their appearance on ITV’s Britain Get Singing during the concert.

Pianist Yuanfan Yang is an alumnus of the 2015 and 2018 Leeds International Piano competition and also the Piano Ambassador for the Wharfedale Festival of Piano, which includes the annual Waterman Piano Recital Series in memory of The Leeds co-founder Dame Fanny Waterman.

The Bantam of the Opera choir features fans of Bradford City AFC, known as ‘the Bantams’, who have been taught to sing opera to celebrate Bradford’s UK City of Culture year as part of a BBC Radio Leeds programme.

Yorkshire Calling is the headline event of this year’s Yorkshire Day celebrations, which are being held in Bradford & Ilkley and are led by the Yorkshire Society in partnership with Bradford Council and Ilkley Business Improvement District.

The day starts with the civic celebrations, where Lord Mayors and Yorkshire Society members from across the region will visit Bradford City Hall, before heading to Ilkley for a parade, church service and civic lunch at the King’s Hall & Winter Gardens.

A number of events will take place across the district over the weekend, including a comedy night at St George’s Hall and a new Yorkshire-themed rock gig, Monsters of Yorkshire Rock, at Nightrain in Bradford, headlined by Graham Oliver from Barnsley heavy metal legends, Saxon. In Ilkley, there will be a weekend of family-friendly events and activities.

Tickets: trafalgartickets.com/bradford-live-bradford/en-GB/event/music/yorkshire-calling-tickets