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.
In April Janet had been due to conduct Saffron Walden Choral Society and the Chameleon Arts Orchestra in Alec Roth’s A Time To Dance paired with the Bach Magnificat. SWCS hope to reschedule these wonderful pieces in due course.
A programme in the SONORO series Choral inspirations was to include Janet’s Beati Quorum Via (Homage to Stanford) as well as Sarah Cattley’s Sicut Cervus. Janet and her chamber choir Granta Chorale were due to share the Saffron Hall platform with Neil Ferris and professional chamber choir SONORO in March. Sadly the event fell victim to the pandemic but all hope to pick up the project again when possible.