Artists
Samuel Hudson – conductor
Hilary Summers – contralto
Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir
Programme
Judith Weir All the ends of the earth
Sarah Kirkland Snider If you bring forth what is within (UK Premiere)
Peruchona Cessate tympana, cessate praelia
— Interval —
Luke Styles Voices of Power (World Premiere)
‘When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful’ – Malala Yousafzai
The Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir premieres an exciting new commission by Luke Styles. What is the power of the voice, and how has it changed over time? In this new cantata, composer Luke Styles and writer Jessica Walker explore the shifting sands of power, from the Empress of the Iceni tribe to Hillary Clinton, via Catherine the Great and Eleanor Roosevelt, through the extraordinary vocal and physical presence of contralto Hilary Summers. The first half of the programme includes a beautiful piece by Maria Peruchona, a nun and composer in seventeenth-century Italy and a forgotten voice of this earlier time. There is also a UK premiere from innovative American composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, whose fusing of indie rock and classical chamber music has led critics to praise her music as part of the burgeoning indie-classical movement.
Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir supported by Fr Michael Thomas
Voices of Power supported by the Three Choirs Commissioning Circle