Opera North has appointed a new General Manager and Programmer for its iconic Howard Assembly Room.
Stepping into a brand new role at the organisation, Tony Green joins the core team behind Opera North’s iconic Leeds City Centre venue, bringing with him a wealth of invaluable experience from his previous roles across live music, cultural events and e-commerce. Green will take on the creative programming of the space going forward, redefining the venue’s future via a bold, cross-genre approach inspired by underground club culture, global sounds and boundary-breaking art.
With a varied career spanning several decades, Green has dedicated his life to uniting people through music, culture and ideas. Bringing together his vast experiences across diverse roles such as DJ, record shop owner, creative programmer and operations director, Green’s key ambitions for the Howard Assembly Room are to enhance the customer experience and to make the space more visible and accessible to wider audiences in the region by working with a greater breadth of promoters, both in the local area and nationwide.
While Opera North and Howard Assembly Room are registered charities, the organisation is excited to embrace new ideas and more commercial thinking to bolster financial resilience and create a sustainable long-term future for the venue.
Alongside the news of the appointment, Howard Assembly Room has also shared details of its impressive autumn events programme, which brings some of the finest names in music, comedy, film and multi-disciplinary arts to the performance space over the coming months.
Highlights from the series include an appearance from Mercury-nominated Welsh songwriter Cate Le Bon,who is set to perform in October following the release of her forthcoming sixth album ‘Michelangelo Dying’, multiple concerts from shape-shifting ensemble Manchester Collective who present both ‘Shaker Loops’ (a unique interpretation of the John Adams composition with spoken word artist Christ Bryan) and ‘Wintering’ (their new collaboration with vocal ensemble The Marian Consort), alongside further appearances from celebrated names including Penguin Cafe, Fergus McCreadie Trio, Sanskrit Wahane, Courtney Pine and more.
Meanwhile, November will see ice music pioneer Terje Isungset returning to the UK with his new quartet, performing solely using one-of-a-kind instruments sculpted by award-winning ice carver Bill Covitz, while in December the venue will play host to ‘Pass The Spoon’; a contemporary cooking-themed opera from the surreal minds of composer David Fennessy, artist David Shrigley and director Nicholas Bone.
Howard Assembly Room Autumn 2025 programme:
Judith Hill – Friday, 5 September
Distilled: Ensembles of Opera North Sunday, 14 September
Courtney Pine presents Song (The Ballad Book) – Saturday, 20 September
Manchester Collective: Shaker Loops – Saturday, 27 September
Cinema Crawl: Whiplash – Sunday, 28 September
Ancient Infinity Orchestra – Thursday, 9 October
Cate Le Bon – Saturday, 11 October
Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver – Friday, 17 October
Tom Ollendorff trio featuring Jeff Ballard & Conor Chaplin – Sunday, 19 October
The Things Around Us – Wednesday, 22 October
Distilled: Clarinet Sextet & Trio – Sunday, 26 October
Travel Light – Thursday, 30 October
James K – Tuesday, 11 November
Fergus McCreadie Trio – Sunday, 16 November
Penguin Cafe – Friday, 21 November
Sanskrit Wahane – Saturday, 22 November
Distilled: Trombone Trio – Sunday, 23 November
Manchester Collective: Wintering – Friday, 28 November
Pass the Spoon – 12-20 December
Tony Green , General Manager & Programmer, Howard Assembly Room “I’m excited to begin work in this brand new role with Howard Assembly Room and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve together over the coming months and years. We’re all very lucky to have this truly unique place in Leeds; we have a world-class production offering here at the venue and my intention is to ensure we can make visiting Howard Assembly Room one of the best nights out you can have in Leeds and accessible to absolutely everyone.”
The-Howard-Assembly-Room-Team-Tony-Green-Kev-Cooke-Julia-Szulc-and-Issy-Balmforth
Isla Mundell-Perkins, Director of Artistic Administration, Opera North: “ Having our very own venue gives us the opportunity to programme artists that we admire from across the musical spectrum and to celebrate artistic excellence in all its forms. Many artists – and audience members – return time and again to the Howard Assembly Room, simply because they love such a beautiful space, the intimacy it offers and the fabulous acoustics. We look forward to the next chapter in its illustrious history with Tony and his team.”
For full programme, tickets and more, head to:
https://www.operanorth.co.uk/howard-assembly room/
Main image by Charlie Swinbourne. Valentines Day Cabaret.
