On Saturday 21st June in Saffron Hall Janet will be conducting a performance of her cantata On the Breath of the Sky with original soloist Bethany Halliday and the Will Todd Ensemble. This cantata, to words by Nick Warburton, deals with the plight of the albatross. Commissioned by Saffron Walden Choral Society in partnership with the RSPB for Wingbeats in 2009, it was later recorded and extracts can be heard on the home page of…
Granta Chorale will give the first performance of Janet’s new setting of Gaudeamus Igitur at their concert Music for Double Choirs in Saffron Hall on Saturday 10th May. The poem by award-winning author Kevin Crossley-Holland is a joyful celebration of the natural world. Janet’s ,double choir setting uses the Latin title as a refrain and a repeating accompaniment figure, often in the second choir, while the colourful descriptive language of the poem is declaimed mostly…
At a special Evensong at St Edmundsbury Cathedral The Martyrdom of St Edmund was given a well-received first performance. James Thomas, the Cathedral’s Director of Music, said: “Janet’s anthem has a great depth of drama and emotion, with real sensitivity to the words, and a strong musical structure. It has appealed greatly to both Choristers and Lay Clerks”. Afterwards all the choristers wanted Janet’s autograph. As the Archbishop of Canterbury had visited them earlier in…
Janet is now on Twitter @JanetWheelerMM – please follow her! MazeMusic has its own Facebook page too.
Anthem premiere at special Centenary Evensong, 29th March 2014 Janet’s winning entry will be premiered in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The wonderfully dramatic text recounts the death in 869 of St Edmund, King of East Anglia, at the hands of the invading Vikings. Janet’s setting for choir and organ emphasises the contrast between these dark events and the steadfast faith of St Edmund, which provides a recurring point of optimism and…