Birds of Paradise première

Birds of Paradise première Edinburgh’s Cadenza Choir commissioned Janet to compose a retirement gift for Jenny Sumerling, who directed the choir for 22 years. With new conductor Tim Coleman, the choir premièred Janet’s setting of Christina Rossetti’s ‘Birds of Paradise’ at Greyfriars Kirk on August 24th in their Edinburgh Fringe Festival concert. The music features aleatoric birdcalls from upper voices layered against a full SATB texture.  The organ loft in Greyfriars Kirk made the ideal…

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Ely Service for 1350th anniversary

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…

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‘Be This Thine Ark’ for Lincoln’s Inn Chapel Choir

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…

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LFCCM Celebration Concert

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…

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Requiem to Cancer 23rd-24th September

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…

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