In 673 St Etheldreda founded a double monastery on the site of Ely Cathedral. To mark the 1350th anniversary of this event, the Friends of Ely Cathedral have commissioned Janet to compose a new Ely Service. Janet has used the numbers 673 and 1350 as inspiration for some if the melodic material in the service. It will be sung on June 4th and also on June 21st when it will be broadcast live on BBC…
In the 400th anniversary year of Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, Janet was commissioned to write a setting of John Donne for the Chapel Choir to perform with Hackney Choral. She chose part of Donne’s prayer before his sermon for the dedication of the chapel in 1623 and combined this with some Latin quotations from St Bernard taken from the sermon itself, together with Donne’s own elaborated translations. The resulting anthem Be This Thine Ark likens the…
To mark Christopher Batchelor’s inspirational twenty years leadership of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, Alastair Carey has curated a special celebration concert to open LFCCM 2023. Recently commissioned composers have been invited to contribute, with a whole team of composers writing different sections of a collaborative Mass setting Missa Brevis pro Baccalarius. Janet has composed the final section of the Gloria. The work is to be premièred on May 12th at St Pancras…
Janet’s new setting for choir and harp of Edmund Sear’s words to the well-known carol It Came Upon the Midnight Clear will be premièred by Granta Chorale at All Saints Church Jesus Lane, Cambridge on 17th December 2022. The harp plays more than an accompanying role, with swooping glissandi, high sparkling flashes as well as dramatic arpeggios to support the choir’s shifting harmonies.
The chapel choir of Somerville College Oxford and conductor Will Dawes have brought out a new CD: The Dawn of Grace – music for Christmas, featuring an innovative and varied collection of twenty tracks by modern female composers. These include Janet’s Ding Dong Diggety! her jazzy arrangement combining Ding Dong Merrily on High with the Westminster chimes and vocal percussion. Listen to the collection and order the CD.