REVELATION - INSPIRATIONS

Love this short video which reveals the inspiration behind my new album Revelation.  It follows my pilgrimage last year to the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Greek island of Patmos where St John wrote The Book of Revelation.

Revelation, is released on 10th Feb and features twenty-two brand new choral works including two choral collections.

Pre-order your copy now at iTunes or Amazon.

The first of the new collections, Revelation, is a collection of nine pieces based on text from the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, written by St John on the island of Patmos.

The second work, Beatitudes, is a collection setting the eight Beatitudes of Christ from the Gospel of St Matthew and captures the essence of Christ’s message that those people normally thought of as being unfortunate are, in fact, blessed.

Five other standalone works complete the album including The Word which sets the beautiful poetry of the Johanine Prologue, The Lord’s Prayer from Patrick’s mass setting The Edenham Eucharist, and a new recording of Patrick’s 2004 piece Quanta Qualia, in the arrangement he wrote for Voces8’s album Eventide.

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REVELATION - NEW ALBUM

My new album, Revelation, is released on 10th Feb and features twenty-two brand new choral works including two choral collections! 

The first of the new collections, Revelation, is a collection of nine pieces based on text from the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, written by St John on the island of Patmos.

The second work, Beatitudes, is a collection setting the eight Beatitudes of Christ from the Gospel of St Matthew and captures the essence of Christ’s message that those people normally thought of as being unfortunate are, in fact, blessed.

Five other standalone works complete the album including The Word which sets the beautiful poetry of the Johanine Prologue, The Lord’s Prayer from Patrick’s mass setting The Edenham Eucharist, and a new recording of Patrick’s 2004 piece Quanta Qualia, in the arrangement he wrote for Voces8’s album Eventide.

More info on how to Pre-Order your copy will be available soon.

THE KING'S SINGERS

I was thrilled, in Autumn of last year, to be commissioned by the The King’s Singers to write a new piece for them.   The double Grammy® award-winning ensemble will perform the World Premiere of Musica Dei Donum at the Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice on 24th January.

The piece sets the ancient Latin words and a version in English is set to follow later in the year.

Musica Dei donum optimi

trahit homines, trahit deos:

Musica truces mollit animos

tristesque mentes erigit.

Musica vel ipsas arbores

et horridas movet feras

cunctisque solatia prestans.

Music, the gift of the supreme God,

draws men, draws gods;

music makes savage souls gentle

and uplifts sad minds;

music moves the trees themselves

and wild beasts,

affording solace to all.

CHILDREN'S OPERA

There's only two weeks left for Norfolk schools to apply to be in my Children's Opera in association with Into Opera!

The opera, A King’s Ransom, offers an unusual twist on the well-known story of Robin Hood.  It explores what happens when Robin is unable to save the day and instead the community must look within itself for answers to its problems.  

The opera was originally written in 1994 and, twenty-one years on, Patrick and brother Andy, the opera’s librettist, have returned to this work with fresh eyes and are collaborating with Into Opera to revise and expand the work.  Together they aim to develop A King’s Ransom into a National Education Project.  Into Opera are embarking on this journey in partnership with the Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts.

A King’s Ransom is an opera written especially for children to sing.  Each time this opera is staged we aim to work with four schools; integrating, collaborating, working side by side and learning from each other with this opera at its core.  The characters in the opera clearly split into four chorus sections: the villagers, soldiers, bagmen and masons.  Each of these chorus sections will be sung by a separate school.  

So, if you're a school in Norfolk with Key Stage 2 pupils and want to find out more, email: genevieve.raghu@into-opera.org.uk for info.  

The opera is being launched in early 2018 in Norfolk and performances around the nation will follow.  For more information on the opera visit the Into Opera website. 

INTERVIEW FOR DURHAM UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT MAGAZINE

A nice interview appears in this season's edition of Palatinate, the student magazine of my alma mater Durham University.

Click here for the full article.  

CLARINET CONCERTO

It's been great to see that Emma Johnson's new album featuring my Clarinet Concerto was made Classic FM's Album of the Week this week.  John Suchet has played two of the movements from my concerto on his main morning show and the response has been wonderful.

I've produced this video about writing the concerto for Emma, giving a little insight into the creative process.  Hope you enjoy it.

Best of luck with the album Emma!

An English Fantasy, recorded with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Phil Ellis and released on Nimbus Records, is available now from iTunes and Amazon.

CANADA

Well, the World Premiere of Revelation and Beatitudes could not have gone better!

Toronto skyline from the islands

After an overnight stay in Toronto, I arrived in Elora and went straight to the Elora Festival Singers' rehearsal in St John's Church, Elora.  What a beautiful sound this choir makes under Noel Edison's baton!  You can hear them rehearsing 'Blessed are the Meek' from Beatitudes in this short clip.

And one of the best bits of news was that, not only were the choir performing Revelation and Beatitudes, they were also premiering the stand-alone pieces that will feature on the album!  I was so touched that they had decided to use my new works to make up the whole concert.  

The next afternoon there was one more rehearsal of everything in the performance venue, St Joseph's Church, Fergus, and then on to the big night itself.  

Rehearsing Revelation

The World Premiere

The choir performed impeccably and the audience loved the music to the extent that they gave me, Noel and the choir a standing ovation - I took that as a good sign for the future of the works!  As an encore, they performed Quanta Qualia in the arrangement I did for Voces8 with choir and saxophone - a really beautiful way to end a wonderful evening.

As I type, the choir are busy recording the new works for the Naxos label - the album will be out in March next year along with the sheet music (to be published by Walton / GIA Music), so watch this space for more news.