Making sweet symphony music for Yorkshire

Adding the final touches, musicians from across Yorkshire record the symphony

Musicians have been spending a week at a recording studio in Leeds performing a piece of music that's all about Yorkshire.

The idea behind The Symphony for Yorkshire is to reflect the region using ideas, words and music by people who live here.

Rehearsals are now underway and recording has started on the Symphony for Yorkshire. It's a piece of music commissioned by the BBC which will be broadcast on Yorkshire Day, the first of August.

The song will be released on Yorkshire Day on Radio York and Look North

The winning poem, which will form the words for A Symphony for Yorkshire, was written by Doreen Brigham from Harrogate. She was shocked, but thrilled, to learn she'd won.

Poet Ian Macmillan, one of the judges described the poem as being concise with a nice musical lilt to it. It was a clear winner as all the members of the judging panel had Doreen's poem in their shortlists.

Doreen says she was born in Yorkshire and loves Yorkshire and was inspired to write the poem when she retired to her home county after having lived 'down south'.

Nikhil Johnson plays drums for Luver Gunk a rock band from Leeds who are taking part in the final symphony and have been rehearsing with composer, Benjamin Till.

Nikhil says he's been a little nervous because he's playing a different sort of music to what he's used to.

He says: "We auditioned, played one of our songs and they seemed to like it. This is now Ben's composition but we've sort of put our own take on it. So it should be quite cool to play."

Howard Brakespear plays the viola with Opera North and is part of the symphony.

He says: "Our orchestra secretary emailed us about it. It's not frightening like a lot of new music is, and doesn't use up any extra brain cells. You can enjoy it straight away.

Working on a symphony for Yorkshire

Benjamin Till, the composer behind the project, says it's been an incredible journey.

He says: " We've been very busy in the studio so far.

"There's a score which we are working on which is carefully written.

"The words have been a bit of a godsend which have kept me going.

"The symphony is in bits. When you've got 250 musicians taking part you have to do it in blocks, so I can get the levels right.

"The singing was a challenge for some. The difficult parts were the rock groups and the folk band, which have been harder to integrate.

"We are up to our complete number of violins now and have two brass bands."

Describing the music he says: "A lot of it is based on Yorkshire folk songs, but it's still a work in progress."