Commissions and premieres
Alongside our Composer-in-Residence Lucy Walker, St Martin's Voices are proud to have commissioned and premiered a number of choral works by leading contemporary composers.
Emily Hazrati The World Turns
Premiered in June 2025
Premiered in June 2025 with St Martin-in-the-Fields' Artist-in-Residence, Imogen Whitehead
Emily Hazrati was commissioned by St Martin's Voices to write a work for trumpet and choir for their Heaven and Earth programme, to be performed on 10th June 2025. The World Turns takes the listener through a kaleidoscope of musical and narrative atmospheres, from the subdued to the dramatic, and from warmth to turbulence. This emotionally charged journey through the seasons is framed by the trumpet’s quasi-fanfare figures which open and close the work; hinting at a sense of hope and optimism before shifting towards feelings of ambivalence and fragility when cycling back to the opening material, this time just a faint echo of what came before.
Yshani Perinpanayagam Husk
Premiered in April 2025 with the Piatti Quartet
Yshani Perinpanayagam’s new commission, Husk, was written for St Martin's Voices to perform at their Choral Discovery concert 'Love and Loss' on 1st April 2025. It sets a poem that she has written, reflecting on the husk of a fruit, discarded after its flesh has been consumed. While the premise is simple, it evokes an array of profoundly existential inquiries about life after loss and death, with the metaphorical husk serving as both a symbol of the departed and the loved ones who are left behind to mourn.
Anna Disley-Simpson Maeshowe
Premiered in April 2024 with the Piatti Quartet
During the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year), the light of the setting sun shines down the long stone passage at the Maeshowe burial cairn and illuminates the central chamber, a neolithic burial tomb on the Isle of Orkney. This work for string quartet and choir features a libretto by Olivia Bell.
Bob Chilcott Mary, Mother
Premiered in December 2022
Recorded on 'A Winter Breviary' (Resonus Classics 2023)
Bob Chilcott’s Mary, Mother – a carol suite in six movements, with libretto by Georgia Way. The suite was premiered by St Martin’s Voices in December 2022, in a concert performance presented by Zeb Soanes and later broadcast on Classic FM. Chilcott and Way collaborated closely to craft a work which shines a light on the human experience of Mary, as the woman at the heart of the Christmas story – tracing her youth, her courtship with Joseph, and her journey to becoming a mother.
Thomas Hewitt Jones Love is the Answer
Premiered in December 2022
Recorded on 'A Winter Breviary' (Resonus Classics 2023)
Thomas Hewitt Jones’ Love is the Answer was dedicated to St Martin’s Voices during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a lilting and warm carol for choir and organ, celebrating the Christmas story through four verses of the composer’s own poetry, framed by a soaring refrain about the power of singing together – especially at Christmas time. Hewitt Jones has described the piece as ‘an antidote to the gloom’ experienced during the pandemic, and a reminder of the importance of choral singing ‘as the essence of our musical community’.
Nils Greenhow O clap your hands
Premiered in May 2022
Broadcast live on 'A Celebration for Ascension Day' (BBC Radio 4) with the London Mozart Players
Nils Greenhow was Composition Fellow with St Martin's Voices in 2017, during which time he wrote a number of works for the choir, including I would love in your love and Preces and Responses, and has continued a fruitful relationship with the choir ever since. His setting of O clap your hands was written especially for a live broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2022.
Will Todd Passion Music
Premiered in April 2017
Recorded on 'Will Todd - Passion Music' (Signum Classics, 2019)
Passion Music continues the fusion of jazz and choral music so successfully blended in Will Todd's Mass in Blue. The structure highlights different points in the Passion story, beginning with a new setting of Greater Love Has No Man and including an evocative Stabat Mater, a movement focusing on the seven last words of Christ, and a setting of Were you there when they crucified my Lord?. While some sections are reflective, Todd also makes full use of his understanding of energetic jazz and gospel.
