I’m deleighted to be singing as a soloist in Duruflé’s Reqiuem this All Souls’ Day.

Maurice Duruflé began composing his requiem in 1941, when France was largely under Nazi occupation. The Vichy Regime approached several French composers to request substantial compositions, ostensibly in order to preserve French culture in the face of occupation. Duruflé was one such composer.

Duruflé based his requiem on the Gregorian Missa pro defunctis, the first composer known to do so since Victoria in the sixteenth century. Having been a chorister at Rouen Cathedral from the age of ten, Duruflé was already immersed in Gregorian Chant. Under Nazi occupation, with culture and traditions under threat, it strikes me as very natural that Duruflé should turn to music that had been sung for many centuries, especially when it was the music of his childhood. In this sense, I feel that Duruflé’s requiem is not only a traditional requiem to mark a death (it was dedicated to his father), but also a requiem for France herself: for those traditional parts of French culture and tradition that were under threat.

I will sing the mezzo-soprano solos in a performance with the Leidse Cantorij, with conductor Hans Brons, organist Willeke Smits, and cellist Ruud Meester.

Sunday, 5th November, 17:00, Hooglandse Kerk, Leiden
Free entrance, no reservations necessary

In these horribly uncertain times, with war raging in Palestine, Israel, Ukraine, Myanmar, the Maghreb, Ethiopia and Sudan, it is particularly confronting to sing Karl Jenkins’s mass for peace, “The Armed Man.” I will join the Groot Nederlands Projectkoor, Brassband Gelderland, baritone Menno Slagter and musicians Rehan Osmani, Ehsan Misken and Mohammed Shauqi, with conductor Martin van der Brugge in the Muziekgebouw Eindhoven for this performance.

For more information, please visit this website.

Sunday, 22nd October, 16:30, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

I’m excited to share the news that two of my compositions have been recorded by Salford Cathedral Choir on their new album “Rise up and Wonder” on Priory Records. The conductor was Alex Patterson.

The album was launched on 14th October and is available on most online streaming platforms. It contains beautiful choral music, all liturgical, and the singing is fantastic!

My two pieces, Sweet was the Song the Virgin Sung and O Lux Beata Trinitas, are published by Edition HH.

For more information about “Rise Up and Wonder,” please click here.