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An Evening of Music at Crossley Gallery
On Monday 6 July 2026 we were delighted to return to Yorkshire for a special fundraising concert at Crossley Gallery in Halifax, one of the UK’s largest private galleries situated in Dean Clough. The evening featured performances from some of the talented young musicians we’re currently supporting on our Thrive programme.
Our first performance was from 12-year-old cellist Aurora. Born in Hong Kong, Aurora and her family moved to the UK in 2020. Successfully joining Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire aged eight, Aurora went on to gain a high distinction for her ABRSM Grade 8 exam a year later, and she became the youngest-ever finalist in the Junior Section of the Bromsgrove Young Musicians’ Platform in June 2023. She was also appointed Principal Cellist of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain (Project Programme) for two consecutive years.
Aurora aspires to become a professional musician and teacher, with the ambition to travel the world with her music. In the meantime, she looks forward to growing tall enough to play a full-sized cello!
Aurora has been supported by Young Sounds for three years, this year thanks to The Simon Richards Award. At our fundraising concert, she performed she performed a movement of Bach’s Sonata No.3 in G minor and Popper’s vibrant Polonaise de Concert.
Young Sounds in West Yorkshire
Nearly half of the total number of young people we support at Young Sounds UK live in the North of England, and around half of those young people are living in Yorkshire.
Our Connect programme helps young people from low-income families at the earliest stage in their musical journey, so they can keep on progressing and playing music well into their teens and beyond. Young musicians from Yorkshire make up over a quarter of all the Connect musicians we support. At the Crossley Gallery, concert goers were treated to a speech from Helen Borg, one of our West Yorkshire Connectors, about the impact of our Connect programme on young musicians in the region.
Helen was then joined by our next performer, 17-year-old trumpeter Noah. Noah was previously a student of Helen’s, and before his recital the two reunited through a short trumpet duet!
Born into a family of Brass banders, Noah divides his time living in Cullingworth and playing solo flugelhorn with the Hammonds Band, whilst studying trumpet at Chetham’s School of Music. He’s also principal flugelhorn for the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. Noah’s sisters both play trumpet and flugelhorn and aged seven he became curious to experiment with their instruments. He started lessons shortly after and never looked back! Starting his lessons through Bradford Music and Arts Service – with Young Sounds Connector, Helen Borg – Noah followed in his sister’s footsteps and won a place at Chetham’s aged 11 where he’s currently studying Music and Music Technology for his A Levels.
Noah loves being surrounded by music and like-minded people, plays in a multitude of chamber ensembles and orchestras, and he was twice a finalist in Chetham’s Concerto Competition.
Noah is being supported by the Thrive programme with his journey to auditioning for music conservatoires this year. After his studies, Noah would love to either become an orchestral trumpeter or an army band musician. This is the third year Noah has been supported by Young Sounds, this year thanks to The Graucob Awards.
Against the backdrop of the Crossley Gallery, Noah provided superb performances of Théo Charlier’s Solo de Concours and Rachmaninov’s In the Silence of the Night, the latter of which he transcribed himself.
Our final performance of the evening came courtesy of 18-year-old violinist Una, playing Eugène Ysaÿe’s moving Poème Elégiaque as well as a stunning interpretation of Paganini’s Caprice No.24 in A minor for solo violin. Una first saw a violinist busking at the young age of two and instantly knew that she wanted to play the instrument. Aged eight, Una successfully auditioned to study at Chetham’s School of Music, and her family moved from Shrewsbury to the North West.
Having completed her education at Chetham’s last year, Una is now studying for a Bachelors in violin at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Professor Nora Chastain. She would love to become a versatile musician and perform as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. Having been on the Thrive programme for three years, this is Una’s final award, this year supported by The Robert Lewin Award. At the concert, Una played on a violin generously on loan from the Benslow Music Trust.
The evening’s performances were accompanied by award-winning pianist Gemma Webster. Gemma studied at the Purcell School, RCM, RNCM and Sibelius Academy, and has performed piano concerti across the UK and in the Netherlands. She regularly features as an accompanist in the BBC Young Musicians competition. Gemma has taught at the University of Sheffield, Chetham’s International Piano Summer School, Westminster School, Christ’s Hospital School (Head of Piano) and Cherry Pie Music London (Head of Piano). In 2019, Gemma joined the staff at Chetham’s School of Music, where she’s a piano tutor and accompanist.
Thank you
We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the people who made this another brilliant fundraising concert to remember: our performers and their parents and carers, Gemma Webster, the staff at Dean Clough, caterers True North and our generous supporters.
If you’d like to find out more about joining our community of supporters, you can contact our Development Manager, Sanpreet Janjua, at [email protected] or 0300 302 0476.