Janet’s online rehearsals during lockdown have been enthusiastically received by singers in her choirs. Of course these rehearsals bring inevitable frustrations for singers and conductors. The joys and benefits of actual choral singing over virtual choirs were the starting point for Janet’s new ‘pop song’ Singing in a Choir. Granta Chorale member Emma Hall had suggested Janet compose a new piece and Emma then produced the video, while Janet’s nephew Robin Wheeler mixed and produced…
Janet’s anthem was nominated to take part in the Twitter World Cup of Evensong Anthems and made it through the first vote into the final 64 of of competition. Head to head with Purcell’s Jehova, Quam Multi Sunt Hostes Mei it managed 37.5% of the vote but went out to the well-known piece.
Janet’s Imagine it! (originally written for NYCGB and O Duo) was part of a Saffron Walden Choral Society programme booked for Saffron Hall in July. It should have shared the programme with Orff’s Carmina Burana and Jonathan Dove’s Arion and the Dolphin, all of which is now on hold.
Janet is very pleased to have a commission from Sarah Tenant Flowers to write a piece for the wonderful Papagena. She is exploring texts for this.
Janet is very pleased to have been commissioned to compose an anthem for Requiem to Cancer – originally scheduled for the end of September 2020, but now postponed until 2021. She is delighted to support this very worthwhile cause, following in the footsteps of previous composers Will Todd and Cecilia McDowall.