TWO of the region’s leading arts organisations have joined forces for the first time to cultivate a new series of musical events.

Opera North and Bretton’s Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) are collaborating on the events which celebrate the four seasons.

The project will include four chamber concerts to be held in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter in different locations across the park.

Led by cellist Matthew Sharp, each performance will feature a mixture of classical and contemporary music and poetry which reflects on the season in question.

Dominic Gray, Projects Director of Opera North, said “We have been talking to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park about working together for years but never hit on the right project before.

“In the last year YSP has opened up some spaces that were previously closed to the public, including the Chapel, and it felt right to embark on a musical project conceived especially for the landscape and architecture of YSP.”

The opening candle-lit concert, Four Seasons: Spring, takes place on Saturday April 9, in the Georgian Grade-II listed chapel which has recently re-opened as a performance and exhibition space.

A quartet will perform music by Italian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi and Argentinean tango composer Piazzolla, who both wrote compositions on the four seasons, as well as Austrian composer Franz Schubert and 20th Century composer Charles Ives.

Mr Gray added: “Opera North and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park are natural partners; both national organisations located in Yorkshire, both interested in art forms outside their respective specialisms and in giving audiences unique and unexpected opportunities to experience art in new and memorable ways.

“Four Seasons is the beginning of what we hope to be a long and fruitful partnership and we look forward to conceiving ever more complex and larger-scale collaborations with YSP.”

Clare Lilley, Director of Programme at YSP said: “We are delighted to launch our partnership with Opera North with a candle-lit performance in the intimate and contemplative setting of the Chapel, breathing new life into a building that is part of YSP’s rich heritage.

“ It is especially fitting that this occasion coincides with the launch of Jaume Plensa’s major exhibition at YSP, as music and literature are such important influences in Jaume’s work.

“We hope that our audiences will enjoy this special collaboration bringing together music, art and poetry.”

For further details and to book online visit www.ysp.co.uk/events or call 01924 830579.