Profiles
LULC was formed in 2002 by Bryan White, Stephen Muir and Philip Wilby as a chamber choir which included the performance of sacred choral music in liturgical settings as one of its important aims. Since that time, the choir has developed into one of the finest choral ensembles in the region. It performs at services and gives concerts; it has also collaborated with a range of professional ensembles including Fretwork, QuintEssential, Skipton Camerata and Leeds Baroque Orchestra. In February 2009 the choir gave two performances of Dido and Aeneas to capacity audiences at Temple Newsam House. The opera was produced by Jack Edwards (Opera Restor’d) and the principal roles were drawn from the choir. In June 2009 LULC joined with Rambert Dance Company and London Musici for performances of Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light at The Grand Theatre in Leeds.
LULC sponsors an annual choral composition competition, funded by the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. Winners in recent years include ‘Inscription for a wayside spring’ (Wayland Rogers, 2008) and ‘Gabriel fram Hevene-King’ (Terry Mann, 2007) the latter of which has recently been published by Oxford University Press.
The choir draws its membership from across the University, and currently includes undergraduates, postgraduates and staff from the departments of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Biological Sciences, Joint Honours, the Lifelong Learning Centre, Medicine and Music. The choir has performed in a variety of prestigious venues throughout the UK (St. Paul’s, London, York Minster, Bristol, Wells, Ely, Lichfield, Lincoln, Salisbury and Leeds Cathedrals), and has participated in the Beverly Early Music Festival and the Pennine Spring Music Festival. It also tours abroad, travelling to the Czech Republic and Poland (2005), Rhineland Germany (2007) and Mantua, Italy (2009). LULC has recorded three CDs: Songs of Praise: Music from the West Riding (2004), Vox Dei (2006), and No Man is and Island (2008). The choir appeared on Corinne Bailey Rae’s recent album, The Sea (2010), and has recorded the title music (by Stephen Kikpatrick) for Michelle Lipton’s play Amazing Grace, broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour in June 2010.