Event Category: Forthcoming

Join us for a celebration of the very best of contemporary choral writing, in honour of the choir’s long-standing commitment to new music. The centrepiece will be the world premiere of ‘Elysian Ode’, written especially for us by our patron Sir James MacMillan, who will be present. The wonderfully apt text is by Robert Herrick:

Music, thou queen of heaven, care-charming spell,
That strik’st a stillness into hell ;
Thou that tam’st tigers, and fierce storms that rise,
With thy soul-melting lullabies ;
Fall down, down, down from those thy chiming spheres,
To charm our souls, as thou enchant’st our ears.

The rest of the programme features emerging composers such as Ed Driver and Kerensa Briggs, and recent works by more established figures such as Caroline Shaw, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Will Todd and Joanna Marsh, alongside such distinguished names as John Rutter, Judith Weir, Eric Whitacre and Arvo Pärt. Truly a feast of music to ‘charm our souls’ and ‘enchant our ears’!