Leeds City Council – HMD Ceremony/Civic Remembrance Event – HMD 2025

Activity information

Activity type: Public activity

Organisation name: Leeds City Council

Address:
City Varieties MCity Varieties Music Hall
Swan Street
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS1 6LW
United Kingdom

Join the Lord Mayor for an afternoon of commemoration
The theme for this year’s event is ‘For a Better Future’
Sunday 26 January, 2pm
City Varieties Music Hall Swan Street, Leeds LS1 6LW
Free and open to all
The event is free, but seats are limited.
Free tickets are available from 13 December 2024
Box office: 0113 243 0808
leedsheritagetheatres.com
There will be British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters at the event.

The Lord Mayor will open this year’s civic remembrance event, which will include a keynote speech by Nick Winton, son of Sir Nicholas Winton MBE.

The Opera North Youth Chorus, the Junior performing wing at Opera North, have been working together with writer Tom Hastings to create a piece that reflects individual and corporate hopes ‘For a Better Future’ using source material as a basis for original writing. Marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the music that accompanies this writing has all been selected from composers who lost their lives there.

There will also be music by Cantor Rachel Weston and a memorial prayer will be sung.
The event will include a reading of the seven statements of commitments with candles lit by representatives of the different groups persecuted in the Holocaust, by German Nazi persecution and in the subsequent genocides which followed. A memorial prayer will be sung to close the event.

The event will be followed by a Q&A with Nick Winton (from approximately 3.30 – 4pm, times may vary slightly on the day) which your ticket will give you access to.

Organiser Name

N/A N/A

Other organisation(s) involved

Opera North, Seven Arts Leeds, Otley Courthouse