Yorkshire Calling: Aled Jones added to star-studded line up to celebrate opening of Bradford Live on Yorkshire Day
A proud institution which stands today as a symbol of Bradford is to celebrate its return with a big concert for Yorkshire Day – and now Aled Jones has joined the star-studded line-up.
Bradford Live, in what was once the old Odeon cinema building, is to reopen as a £50m music and entertainment space this autumn after more than a decade of work.
Now it has gained a sprinkling of "celebrity stardust" for its first concert, Yorkshire Calling, which to be held on Friday, August 1.
Welsh singer Aled Jones will join poet and playwright Ian McMillan, the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra, and Leeds International Piano Festival finalist Yuanfan Yang.
The concert, marking Yorkshire Day, will also see the BBC's Bantam of the Opera Choir with Bradford City legend, Chris Kamara as its ambassador.
Aled Jones, a Welsh singer and presenter who raise to fame as a teenage chorister with Walking in the Air, said he is keen to visit "God's Own County".
“I’m so pleased to be part of such a historic occasion," he said. "I’d like to think of myself as something of an honorary Yorkshireman.
"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.”
Yorkshire Calling is the headline event of this year’s Yorkshire Day celebrations, led by The Yorkshire Society in Bradford and Ilkley. The day starts with civic celebrations at Bradford City Hall, before a Lord Mayors parade in Ilkley, church service and civic reception at the King’s Hall & Winter Gardens.
Over the wider weekend, there are to be a series of events, with a comedy night at St George’s Hall and a newly-named rock gig Monsters of Yorkshire Rock at Nightrain.
In Ilkley, there are to be Yorkshire-themed markets and the first ever Yorkshire Beer Festival.
And for Yorkshire Calling, Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra will perform at Bradford Live under the esteemed baton of Ben Crick.
A Northern Score will feature poems written and narrated by Ian McMillan, celebrating influential northerners through the ages, set to an original score.
Pianist Yuanfan Yang will also take the stage, as an alumnus of the 2015 and 2018 Leeds International Piano competition and as ambassador for the Wharfedale Festival of Piano.
The Bantam of the Opera choir meanwhile, made up of Bradford City fans, have been taught to sing to celebrate the district's year as City of Culture.
They will be joined on stage by former Sky Sports presenter Chris Kamara, who has won plaudits for his work raising awareness of his battle with apraxia.
It will be a special night, he said, as he looks to reprise an "unforgettable" duet he performed with Aled Jones on ITV's Britain Get Singing.
He said: "Now to be part of the first concert at Bradford Live, singing with Aled again, it’s unbelievable!”