Premiere ...
Gracious Lord
The wonderful Graham Ross and the outstanding choir of Clare College Cambridge gave the premiere of Gracious Lord, an anthem I wrote for them. The material uses notes from Graham Ross's name and words that begin with the syllable 'gra' (gracious, great etc).
Text
Gracious Lord,
Hear my new er ceasing prayer.
Gracious Lord,
Incline thine ear
My requests vouch safe to hear.
Great is the Lord
And greatly to be praised
Gracious Lord,
Hear my never ceasing prayer.
Words Psalm 145: 3; William Hammond (1719–83)
This continues a long journey for me where there is a crying of 'hear my prayer', ever more desperate to be heard and healed, accepting it may not be answered and accepting that just asking is a way to highlight one's own despair as an aid to keep going.
It was such a privilege to write for that choir so I could write pretty angular lines over a pleading drone ending with a stratospheric solo sop's prayer ascending. Huge thanks to them.
Sheet Music
Lyon's Mouth
I'm just beginning talks with the new and exciting Lyon's Mouth vocal group which will bring together my therapeutic understanding of early years with lullabies and nursery rhymes as the found material. What a total joy it is working with young musicians at the top of their game.
Black Voices
We just had the wonderful experience of programming a festival positively celebrating the end of Black History Month. All the artists were superb (Leon Bosch, Beatrice Nicholas, Ken Burton and the London Adventist Chorale) but we were particularly thrilled to have 160 pupils from 6 schools who had never sung before perform Errolyn Wallen's superb and haunting Peace on Earth under the guidance of the excellent Vox Urbane's musicians.