This Winter, get beneath the surface as the Howard Assembly Room delves deep into the relationship between music and film; video installation Five Truths asks ‘Who is Ophelia?’; and the annual Voices season celebrates vocalists from Portugal to Palestine. 

Travel beyond the normal in the Howard Assembly Room this Winter as the Leeds arts venue launches a new series exploring the intimate relationship between music and film. Following on from previous film and live music events in the Howard Assembly Room, the first edition of the new Filmusic series goes deeper: from great partnerships between composers and film-makers, to great film music performed in original arrangements and live improvisation to classic film.  

One highlight of the season celebrates the music of Italian film composer Nino Rota played by accordionist Richard Galliano and saxophonist and clarinettist John Surman, following on from their successful London Jazz Festival show, with an intimate new duo lineup. Hauschka playing to Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr sees the German pianist and composer Hauschka take on Carl Dreyer’s 1932 surrealist horror film with a live improvised score. A master of prepared piano, Hauschka entrances audiences around the globe by strategically placing objects on the strings and hammers of his modified instrument, presenting a uniquely gothic soundscape for Vampyr, a film deemed by Alfred Hitchcock to be ‘the only film worth watching twice’ (19 Jan).  

An undoubted highlight of the inaugural Filmusic season, Apollo: For All Mankind is a live performance by the dynamic 13-piece contemporary music group Icebreaker and renowned pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole. Returning the music from Brian Eno’s seminal album, Apollo: Atmospheres and Landscapes, to its original conception, the concert accompanies a screening of NASA documentary footage from the Apollo space missions, catching the mesmerizing beauty and mystery of images of the moon and Earth (20 Jan).  

Opening the series in style is a screening of the classic Western, High Noon, the enduring popularity of which owes much to one of the most famous and influential theme songs: Don’t Forsake Me Oh My Darlin’. High Noon is preceded by a live set by jazz ensemble Home of the Brave, who put their own unique spin on some of the best known music from Western films, TV serials and musicals (13 Jan).  

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