With performances and events beginning to come back online, I am excited and encouraged to report a few performances (in various capacities) of my work in the coming weeks!
This Sunday (June 20th), the Cathedral Choir of St Machar’s Cathedral in Aberdeen and their director Roger Williams will premiere my setting of Psalm 113. This is an excerpt from The St Machar Songbook, a larger work commissioned by them in honor of the Cathedral’s 500-year anniversary, particularly the anniversary of the heraldic ceiling, one of very few such decorated ceilings to survive the Reformation. The piece contains sixteen short movements, all of which are canons in some fashion – one for each of the central row of shields, representing the church leadership in Scotland at the time. The texts are my own reinterpretations of parts of the Solemnization of St Machar found in the Aberdeen Breviary, including lessons, psalms, and other liturgical texts. Working within such a specific framework of canons and rounds to give the Cathedral Choir a piece which can be used in many ways was an absolute joy.
On June 21st at 4:30pm EDT, organist Shannon Murphy will be premiering my chorale prelude on ‘Jesu Meine Freude’ at the Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in Little Italy, NYC as part of their Make Music Day 2021 recitals on the historic Erban Organ. The piece makes use of lots of Impressionist-style clusters of pitches, and Shannon has chosen this recital to premiere the piece specifically for the organ’s suitability for these sounds. The piece was generously commissioned for Shannon by Lee Ryder, who’s been a great supporter of my music over the years. Tickets are available here, free with the opportunity to donate to Friends of the Erban Organ. *Edit – I thought this was being live streamed but it’s not, my mistake!
On June 27th at 3pm EDT (8pm BST), Chamber Choir Ireland and conductor Bernie Sherlock will perform my piece Uprooted as part of their “Shared Ground” concert. The program also includes works by Veljo Tormis, Michael Tippett, Juris Karlsons, and the Irish premiere of Alec Roth’s Shared Ground, featuring six settings of poems by Vikram Seth. Chamber Choir Ireland is Ireland’s flagship professional choir, and I absolutely can’t wait to hear how they interpret this piece. Tickets to the video broadcast are available for €10 here. The recording will be viewable with a ticket for a week after the broadcast.