I am delighted to have been commissioned by the National Trust to compose the 2020 anthem for Springsong, an event celebrating the charity’s 125th anniversary.

The piece will be performed by twenty-two pop-up choirs, as a Singing Beacon, on May 16th 2020. The first choir will start at Alfriston Clergy House, which is the first property to have come under the National Trust’s care in 1896. From there, the Singing Beacon will pass from property to property, with each choir handing over the choral baton to the next choir! The anthem is called ‘For Everyone For ever’ and features lyrics contributed by the Trust’s staff and supporters. It finishes at Waddesdon Manor.

I will be conducting a Springsong choir at Nymans in West Sussex. If you would like to participate at Nymans please click here.

Which National Trust properties are taking part? The list below brings together the full list of participating properties. Click on the images to visit each property’s Spring Song Event Page.

Spring Song is a free event, however, booking with the event venue is essential.

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For Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 the Artistic Director on behalf of Cambridge City Council, Helen Weinstein, of Historyworks commissioned me to set to music words by Michael Rosen for this year’s theme, ‘The Power of Words’, collaborating with the choirs led by Rowena Whitehead, ReSound, and the primary choir at Milton Road, led by Anna-Louise Lawrence, additionally inviting singers from Cambridge faith groups and community choirs to join us for the civic commemorative event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, held at Cambridge Guildhall on Sunday 27th January, with speeches from survivors and poetry and drama pieces responding to genocide survivor testimony, performed by students from Cambridge primary and secondary schools.

Lyrics by Michael Rosen (commissioned by Historyworks)

Musical Arrangement by Kirsty Martin.

Click here to view a video.

The Voice Project commissioned me as a rehearsal leader for their project Arms of Sleep a 10-hour immersive overnight experience of choral music, film and animation set in the beautiful grounds of historic stately home Firle Place.

The contemporary circus company Circa commissioned me to work as a rehearsal leader for their project Depart. This piece, a modern retelling of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, took place at night in Brighton’s Woodvale cemetery and incorporated acrobats, dancers, singers and guides who walked the audience through the performance.

I worked with the fabulous Brighton People’s Theatre composing for Tighten Our Belts, a show that told the real-life experiences of local people affected by austerity.

Under the direction of the wonderful Naomi Alexander, alongside choreographer Gary Clarke and with a multi-talented performance troupe, many of whom had never been on stage before, many of whom were the people who were struggling financially, we collaborated to present everyday accounts of living in poverty through music and dance. 

This project was really exciting, important and empowering work.  

Click here for a review of the performance.

Cycle of Songs was an Arts Council England funded project commissioned by Cambridge City Council, devised by the award winning Pilot Theatre and Historyworks to mark the Tour de France visit to Cambridge on 7th July 2014.

I was commissioned by Helen Weinstein to write a choral piece with Rowena Whitehead to celebrate the place names of Cambridge on the theme of riding bicycles round Cambridge, called Why We Ride, and based on the poems of Hollie McNish & Inja. Read more about Why We Ride here. Also, I also composed a piece for the Cambridge Choir called ‘Women of Note’ to record for the Cycle of Songs, which told the History of Women to celebrate the ‘Unsung’ Women of Cambridge! Read more about Unsung Women, and listen to audio parts here. 

I also lead a massed choir in a flashmob style busk in several locations around central Cambridge, and conducted the choir on the steps of the Fitzwilliam Musem as the Tour de France cyclist went past. The photos below were taken during the project.

All the photos in the slide who are taken from the Historyworks Flikr Photostream. 

Visit the project website.