A BUDDING young pianist from York has been chosen to play the music for the Yorkshire anthem, written by a 98-year-old woman from Harrogate.

Sean Greenheld, 13, a pupil at Fulford School, auditioned to bring the BBC’s Symphony For Yorkshire to life.

He was chosen from the auditions to play the Yorkshire Symphony and he will now be involved in making a short musical film with musicians from around the county.

Sean, of School Lane, Bishopthorpe, auditioned alongside about 25 other adults and youngsters at Leeds College of Music, while auditions were also carried out at venues across Yorkshire.

Sean, who has played piano for four years and is a grade five, is part of a young musicians group at Leeds College of Music, where he regularly performs. He will join the chosen symphony of musicians playing a range of instruments on June 17 when they will record the anthem in a studio.

He said: “I used to want to become a footballer or a sportsman of some kind. But now I want to be a musician. My friends think it’s cool and in the music classes I play them songs. I’m really excited and proud.”

The anthem was written by Doreen Brigham, from Burnt Yates, who submitted a poem to the Yorkshire Countrywomen’s Association (YCA). The association then entered her poem for the BBC’s Symphony for Yorkshire competition and the next thing Doreen knew, the poem had been chosen.

Doreen’s poem will now be set to music, composed by Benjamin Till, the composer of Watford Gap: The Musical and A1: The Road Musical.

Sean can be seen performing the anthem at the premier of A Symphony for Yorkshire, which will be aired on BBC Look North and on the four BBC local radio stations across Yorkshire, in Leeds, Sheffield, York and Humberside, on Yorkshire Day on August 1.


Yorkshire in verse

Sing a song of Yorkshire, from the Humber to the Tees

Of horses, wool and terriers, of pudding and of cheese

I know no other county where the land is quite so fine

England’s lovely county. And I’m proud to call it mine


Where shining purple heather stretches far across the moor

And the lapwing’s cry above me takes the place of traffic roar

And peace comes drifting gently, there’s no place I’d rather be

Than this land of hills and valleys, from the Pennines to the sea


So when I’ve done my roaming, and when my step grows slow

When heart and mind assure me that the time has come to go

Then let me rest in Yorkshire, for it’s there I want to lie

‘Neath sun and wind and heather, and a gleaming Yorkshire sky