New music

We are active exponents of C20/C21 music, and have forged relationships with a number of contemporary composers, including Bob Chilcott, James MacMillan, Tarik O’Regan, Howard Skempton, Philip Stopford and John Woolrich. We have regularly premiered and commissioned new works, including five in 2016 alone, Exile Lamentations by the Australian composer Paul Stanhope, which we co-commissioned in 2009, andTimepieces, a commission from Ian Stephens in 2011, the third movement of which we premiered on Radio 3. All six works on our 2014 CD Timepieces were premiered by the choir.

The choir has won awards from the PRS Foundation for New Music, Making Music and from The Holst Foundation for outstanding enterprise in choral music. It has some thirty First Recordings to its name, as well as numerous premieres, which are listed below (B first broadcast performance, C Elysian Singers’ commission, E Winning Elysian Singers Psalmfest composition competition entry, I Irish premiere, J joint commission, L London premiere, R first SATB recording, S Spanish/Basque premiere, U UK premiere, W World premiere). Selected sound tracks are available at the foot of the page.

Julian Allwood	Mettimi come un sigillo L
Tom Armstrong	Brontë Antiphons W
Colin Attard	The Lord is my Shepherd W
Bertie Baigent	Noli claudere aures tuas W
Richard Baker	Huiusmodi sunt omnia R
Stuart Beatch	Psalm 53 E
Gavin Bryars	On Photography L
Geoffrey Burgon	The First World L Five love songs L
Diana Burrell	Come Holy Ghost L Creator of the stars of night L
Julian Butcher	Come, everyone that thirsteth W
Bob Chilcott	Four carols by Kevin Crossley-Holland W Our Father W
Danyal Dhondy	Still the Sirens W (Video here)
Antonin Dvořák	Dmitrij (concert performance) L
Aidan Fisher	Allu Mari C
Mark Fleming	Keep thou not silence W
Philip Glass	Three Songs (1984) U
Michael Zev Gordon	There we sat down R
Henryk Górecki	Miserere, Op. 44 BL Songs of Rodziny Katynskie U Three Kurpian Songs, Op. 75 L Three Lullabies, Op. 47 BL
John Habron	Salve Regina W
Bernard Hughes	Psalm 56 E
Andrew Hugill	Les Origines Humaines C (more details on Andrew Hugill’s website)
Alexis Kirke	Open Outcry W (trailer on YouTube)
Erich Korngold	Die Tote Stadt (concert performance) U
David Lancaster	Bliss W
David Lancaster	Feathers W
Owen Leech	If you are Fire W
Jeffrey Lewis	Recordatio W
David Lumsdaine	Five travelling songs WR
James MacMillan	Invocation L Tenebrae Responsories L
Peter Maxwell Davies	Corpus Christi with cat and mouse L O verbum patris L
Philippe Mazé	Trois motets pour un temps de pénitence U
John McCabe	Amen/Alleluia U
Michael McHale	Cross Road Blues W
Per Nørgård	D’Monstrantz Vöögeli U Halleluja – vor Gud er forrykt! U
Chris O’Hara	Be merciful unto me, O God E
Tarik O’Regan	Ave Maria IL Bring rest, sweet dreaming child CR Dorchester Canticles L Surrexit Christus ILS
Michael Parsons	Farthest North W
David Power	The Transfiguration W
David Power	Two Emily Bronte settings W
Daniel Rollison	Adiuva nos, Deus salutaris noster W
Malcolm Singer	Songs of Ascent C
Howard Skempton	The Flight of Song L Roundels of the Year C Song at the year’s turning L
Paul Stanhope	Exile Lamentations JR
Ian Stephens	The Ecchoing Green B Funeral Blues B Timepieces CR
Philip Stopford	Ave regina caelorum W
John Tavener	Many Years W Monument for Beethoven W
James Whitbourn	Magnificat and Nunc dimittis L
John Woolrich	Over the sea C