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…
Following JAM’s workshop in July 2021 on writing for brass or organ, Janet’s Film Noir for brass quintet was premièred by the wonderful Onyx Brass at St Bride’s Church Fleet Street in October 2021. At the end of the concert Janet was awarded the first President’s Commission to write a further piece for Onyx. The result was Up in the Morning Early – Variations on a Scots Song. The traditional song about a dislike of…
The Measure of a Tree is Janet’s new choral and orchestral piece written for Saffron Walden Choral Society who will give the premiere in Saffron Hall on March 19th 2022. The 30-minute piece explores the pivotal role of trees for all life on earth. It includes settings of poems by Ursula Vaughan Williams, Wendell Berry and Robert Macfarlane as well as texts by the composer, sometimes writing individually and sometimes jointly. One of the poems,…
On September 11th 2021, Papagena will give the first performance of Janet’s commission Tomorrow is Today, a setting of words by Sarah Cattley. The piece, which includes music based on real birdcalls and an energetic dance greeting the dawn, will be performed as part of Papagena’s programme Still Moving at St Mary Magdalen Church in Oxford.
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.