With Cecelia McDowall

Five Seasons - A Green Cantata, celebrating the organic landscape in the 21st century

Commissioned by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir with funding from Respect Organics and logistical support from the Soil Association. The World Premiere was on 18 November, 2006 at Sherborne Abbey, Dorset, with a second performance at the Soil Association Annual Conference in Cardiff in January 2007. FIVE SEASONS grew out of their residencies at five different organic farms across Britain, in Dorset, Cumbria, Lincolnshire, North Wales and on the Isle of Mull. The result is an exciting and innovative cantata for 34 voices and string quintet plus oboe and harp, which takes a refreshing look at the pastoral tradition.

Cantate Astra

A setting of Christie's poem 'Messengers', written as a Christmas song for the Canterbury Chamber Choir. It has now been performed many times.

City Almanac

A choral song commissioned by West Hampstead Girls High School to take to the Eisteddfod in 2006 (where they placed 9th), is a light-hearted, non-pastoral take on the seasons.

Lonely Hearts

is a setting of three of Christie’s poems, each offering a different view of being alone. The first song, 'Autumn Migration', describes the flight of a flock of birds across the sky pursued by a ‘single late flyer’ stitching ‘together earth and sky’. The second song, 'Night Garden', evokes the delicate fragrance of a still summer’s evening in which ‘lives too small to risk the light’ bravely begin to stir. The final song, 'Would Like To Meet', presents a ‘Lonely Hearts’ column, with a comic difference. Commissioned by the Canterbury Chamber Choir and first performed in 2005.

White Fox Woman

This was specially written for Paul Goodey (oboe) and Linda Hirst (voice) and recorded by them for a CD which was released in 2003 by the Oboe Classics label (New Ground CC 2003) White Fox Woman is a dark mini-opera for middle to low voice and oboe, inspired by an Oriental myth.

Deep Waters

A darkly comic opera that makes an ecological point, commissioned and performed by W11 Children’s Opera, as their millennium production. First performed at St. James Norlands, London in 2000. DEEP WATERS was specially written for a cast of over 80 children of widely-varied musical experience. The action begins with a wild, raging storm. Four children fall overboard to the bottom of the sea. In this supernatural, aquatic world, where the fish play havoc with each other in a bid to survive, the children find that they can now breathe. With a ghastly sense of impending doom, they realize that it was no accident that brought them here. They have a dangerous task to perform. An opera that is witty but with a dark edge, it has a serious issue at its heart – over-fishing. Later performed elsewhere.

Inferno

For countertenor, trumpet and percussion, commissioned by the Fibonacci Sequence and first performed at St John’s, Smith Square, 1999, with Paul Archibald on trumpet. INFERNO is a dramatic musical piece for orchestra and male soprano, based on writings of Dante and Rimbaud. It has been performed at St. John’s, Smith Square, and elsewhere.

Play Ground

For orchestra, 7 narrators, countertenor/mime, rap artist and children’s voices, based on children’s playground rhymes. Commissioned by London Musici and HAPA (adventure play for children with disabilities and special needs). First performed at St. John’s, Smith Square, 1999, PLAY GROUND is a chanted-not-sung cantata. At its first performance, the narrators were played by Humphrey Burton, Susannah Simons, Edward Petherbridge, and Lady Solti, among others.