A ‘HOPE and Freedom’ lockdown concert is to be staged online after the original event was unable to go ahead because of Covid-19.

Organisers say the brass band charity concert will serve as a “beacon of hope” in difficult times.

The Aireborough Rotary Club annual event will premiere online on Friday, November 27 and will be available for five days.

Rotary spokesman Robert Mirfield said: “For many years one of Aireborough Rotary’s major fundraising events has been the Annual Brass Band Concert with Bradford born Frank Renton conducting and introducing the Hepworth Band.

“Because of the pandemic it was impossible to organise this year’s concert in late October at Yeadon Town Hall until the Band came up with an innovative alternative. ‘Why not create a virtual Festival of Brass as a beacon of hope in these difficult times?’ The Band after seven months of inactivity had come together in mid-October to have their first rehearsal since March with strict social distancing. Conducted by Ryan Watkins they recorded music from Shine as the Light by Peter Graham and the Long Day Closes.”

He added: “The programme, made up of seven pieces includes an imaginative rendition for Yorkshire Day of what they term the Yorkshire Anthem ‘On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at’, played by four Yorkshire bands covering the three Ridings. It even includes the main line of every verse.

“To cap it all in his own inimitable style the man who has fronted these concerts for close on twenty years, Frank Renton eloquently introduces each item.”

Tickets for the Hope and Freedom Lockdown Charity Brass Band Concert cost £5 plus a booking fee of 39p.

Visit ticketsource.co.uk/the-rotary-club-of-aireborough to buy tickets. On payment viewers will receive both a receipt and a link to Aireborough Rotary’s YouTube channel. This will enable them to watch the concert premiering online in high picture quality on Friday, November 27 at 7pm.

Mr Renton returned to Yeadon Town Hall for the 19th time last year. The conductor has been a household name among music lovers for many years, presenting the weekly Listen to the Band programme on BBC Radio 2 for more than two decades.

Born in 1939, he became a professional trumpet-player, and in 1967 he won a Competition for Young Conductors at the Edinburgh Festival. He worked in Germany and Singapore, where he conducted the first performances of the country’s new symphony orchestra. In 1985 he became Principal Conductor of the Royal Artillery Orchestra. In 1988 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the British Concert Orchestra.