On 22 July Regent Records will release a new CD of my work, sung by Truro Cathedral Choir and also featuring organist Luke Bond and saxophonist Joel Garthwaite. The disc, called Vox clara, includes eight premiere recordings. It will be launched at a concert in Truro Cathedral on June 18th.
To the Field of Stars
To the Field of Stars continues to get oustanding reviews. Musicweb calls it “an important, richly imagined work” in their review of the premiere recording, by co-commissioners S:t Jakobs Kammarkör. A second recording has just been released, by the Nonsuch Singers, who gave the UK premiere of the piece in 2014. The new CD on Convivium Records also includes Creator of the Stars of Night and music by Byrd, Victoria, Arvo Pärt & Jonathan Dove.
New recordings
CD releases this winter include the fifth recording to date of To Morning, by the Rodolfus Choir on Signum, two commissions from the choir of the Immaculate Conception, Farm St., and an iTunes single of A Prayer of King Henry VI by the New London Singers. Next Spring will see the release of Fantasia with Anniversary Chorale, by guitarist Tom Kerstens, the second recording of the half-hour To the field of stars by the Nonsuch Singers under Tom Bullard, and a disc of my work (with lots of premiere recordings) by Truro Cathedral Choir on Regent Records.
New choral commissions
New choral commissions this autumn include O quam gloriosum, to celebrate 20 years of the girls’ choir at Norwich Cathedral, Felices ter et amplius for the St Louis Chamber Chorus, settings of O salutaris hostia and Tantum ergo for the Byron Consort of Harrow School and Three Shakespeare Songs, co-commisioned by the Royal College of Music Junior Department and Oslo Cathedral Youth Choir
London International A Cappella Choir Competition
As well as being featured composer at this year’s London International A Cappella Choir Competition, I shall be joining Mark Williams, Lionel Meunier and Peter Phillips as a judge at the final on September 26th. The competition, at St John’s Smith Square in London, involves seven choirs from the UK and beyond and the week begins with the Tallis Scholars‘ 2000th concert which will include Ave Dei patris filia, commissioned by the group for their 40th anniversary in 2013.
Airplane Cantata at the RAF Museum
In a special concert to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the BBC Singers, with Rex Lawson (pianola) and conducted by Martyn Brabbins, will perform Airplane Cantata along with other aviation-inspired pieces by Bob Chilcott, Edward Cowie and George Antheil. The concert on 18 September will take place in one of the hangars at the RAF Museum in Hendon.
Spring Rounds on TV
On May 25th Youth Choir Kamēr… premiered Spring Rounds, for soprano, choir and orchestra, at the Latvian National Opera in their 25th anniversary concert. That sold-out concert was broadcast on Latvian TV and is now available to watch on their website here. Preceded by two other anniversary commissions by Ēriks Ešenvalds and Raimonds Tiguls, Spring Rounds starts at 1 hour 5 minutes.
Big Sky Choral Initiative
This summer I will be composer-in-residence at the Big Sky Choral Initiative. For a week in July, young singers, conductors and composers will gather for an intensive week with Donald Nally, premier vocal ensemble The Crossing and me in the mountains of Montana.
New CD recording from Truro Cathedral
At the beginning of May Christopher Gray and Truro Cathedral Choir recorded a new CD of my work. It includes the first recordings of Vox clara ecce intonat, Holy is the true light, Two Pentecost Motets, the instrumental works Aria for Joel and Vicki and Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen as well as the complete Seven Advent Antiphons and several other works written for the choir over the years. Also featured are saxophonist Joel Garthwaite and organist Luke Bond and the disc will be released by Regent Records in the Spring of 2016.
Spring Rounds in Riga
May 25th 2015 will see the first performance of Spring Rounds, a half-hour piece for soprano, choir and orchestra, at the Latvian National Opera in Riga. Commissioned by the great youth choir Kamēr… for their 25th Anniversary, Spring Rounds will also feature soprano Jolanta Strikaite, and will be conducted by the Artistic Director of Kamēr…, Jānis Liepiņš. The special birthday concert will also include new music by Ēriks Ešenvalds and Raimonds Tiguls and will be broadcast by Latvian Radio and by Latvian Television.
To the field of stars
The premiere recording of my 35-minute Santiago de Compostela cantata To the field of stars is now available. Recorded last year by one of its co-commissioners, Stockholm’s St Jacobs Chamber Choir under its director Gary Graden, the disc is released by Footprint Records. A second recording of To the field of stars, by the Nonsuch Singers and Tom Bullard, will be released later this year.
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ in 2015
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, commissioned by Merton College, Oxford for their 750th Anniversary in 2014 will receive its West Coast premiere on 21 February, given by the Tudor Choir & Players under Doug Fullington. On Palm Sunday, 29 March, Yale Camerata will present the work in New Haven; also in March, the London premiere will be given by the Royal College of Music Junior Department Chamber Choir & Orchestra under Joy Hill on the 21st, followed five days later by a EBU broadcast performance by David Hill with the BBC Singers and Endymion.
Five new publications
Available now from Oxford University Press are five recent scores: La musique, commissioned by Dame Felicity Lott and the Choir of Royal Holloway (also just out on CD from Hyperion Records); I say that we are wound with mercy, a Gerald Manley Hopkins setting also just released on CD by the Choir of Merton College, Oxford; a Tennyson setting, In memoriam, commissioned by Coro and the York Chapter House Choir in memory of Clare Latham; Our flags are wafting in hope and grief, a piece about the Singing Revolution in the Baltic States with words by the great Estonian poet Doris Kareva; and Ave Dei patris filia, written last year for the 40th anniversary of The Tallis Scholars
London International A Cappella Choir Competition 2015
I will be the featured composer at the 2nd London International A Cappella Choir Competition in September 2015. Each choir will include a piece by me in their programmes for the competition.
Three new recordings
Already available is Nowell sing we, the title track of Worcester College Choir, Oxford’s second volume of contemporary Christmas pieces. The Choir of Royal Holloway’s November release Hymns to St Cecilia contains the premiere recording of La musique in which the choir is joined by Holloway alumna Dame Felicity Lott. Also due in November is the Gerard Manley Hopkins setting I say that we are wound with mercy, part of Merton College, Oxford’s Marian Collection.
25th anniversary of the Latvian Youth Choir Kamēr…
I have been commissioned to write a half-hour piece for choir and orchestra to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Latvian Youth Choir Kamēr… The first performance will be on 25 May 2015 at a special birthday concert at the Latvian National Opera in Riga. The texts will range from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and will also include a specially-written 21st century poem by Kārlis Verdiņš
