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.
The 23-24th September sees the première of Janet’s latest choral work, a commissioned anthem for Requiem to Cancer – This Moment of Here and Now. Requiem to Cancer takes the form of a 24-hour Come and Sing in which participants sing four requiems interspersed with the specially composed anthem. Janet’s words explore different ways of focussing on the present moment and the benefits that flow from that. The music starts from the idea of breathing…
George Herbert’s poem Antiphon I is familiar in Vaughan Williams’ glorious setting from The Five Mystical Songs and as a hymn to the tune Luckington. Janet’s new setting for SATB and organ contrasts an energetic and rhythmically varied refrain with verses over a shifting ostinato. The première will be given by St Pancras Church Choir conducted by Christopher Batchelor at Evensong on May 14th as part of the 2022 London Festival of Contemporary Church Music…