Seventy-four years after it first formed, the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra (YSO) has been revived to support musicians in northern England hit by the pandemic. The orchestra, formed in Leeds, will play a series of live outdoor concerts this summer, including one with the classical singer Alfie Boe at Harewood House in West Yorkshire. Formed to fill the postwar cultural lacuna in 1947, the orchestra’s audiences in Leeds town hall included the artist David Hockney and the writer Alan Bennett. The original group was disbanded in 1955, leaving Yorkshire without a county symphony orchestra for decades. The conductor of the re-formed ensemble, Ben Crick, said the lack was “really strange” given the size of the cities of Leeds, York and Sheffield, but the revival was “potentially one of the most exciting things that lockdown has brought us”. Bennett, who was born in Leeds, wrote in his diaries of going to hear the orchestra play every Saturday in his boyhood. He featured in a BBC radio documentary charting its history and demise in 2014, Death of an Orchestra. While there have been previous attempts to bring the orchestra back to life over the decades, they have not lasted. Crick saw the YSO as an opportunity to rebalance the classical music industry’s disproportionate focus on London, adding that Covid had “ripped the bottom out of” the industry, with many forced to seek alternative work. All of the orchestra’s players hail from Yorkshire, including Leeds, Skipton and York. “The idea that there’s some sort of intrinsically more artistic characteristic in a southerner than a northerner absolutely does my nut in. I’m not saying classical music is for everyone, it isn’t, but it should be available for anyone.” Crick added: “Why shouldn’t northerners get a comparable exposure and experience to people in London?” He said the pandemic had made people “evaluate what matters … Music is the running commentary of the human experience. It’s got us through Covid. We need musicians, we need artists. We are the people who care for people’s mental health.” One of those providing the soothing effects of live music will be Anthony Thompson. Thompson, a trumpeter whose busy pre-pandemic schedule included performances for Pope Benedict and alongside Sting, took a job as a builder’s labourer during the crisis when venue closures meant that his work dried up. One of many freelancers in the arts who had to find new different sources of income over the last year, Thompson said the “pandemic just stopped everything in its tracks for me”. “I couldn’t get furlough, and I wasn’t eligible for any grants, so then it was a matter of: what can I do?” he said. Other members of the orchestra, all professional musicians, found themselves walking dogs, working in a brewery or volunteering in Covid vaccination centres instead of travelling the world performing. Crick, whose income dropped to 60% of its level pre-pandemic, found himself with more time to dedicate to composing, and also volunteered as part of the Yorkshire Dales Rescue team. He said his 20 years of experience in the industry with “a wealth of northern freelance musicians” of “the highest professional quality … I know there’s a talent pool there that I can get together and make a really first-rate professional orchestra in Yorkshire.” His dream was that the group becomes a full-time symphony orchestra and provides a “musical and cultural voice for Yorkshire and the north of England”. Thompson and his fellow players are booked to accompany Boe at the Picnic Proms at Harewood, and Queen Symphonic at the Lakeside Live outdoor festival at the Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster. The orchestra is also scheduled to perform a county-wide concert tour.