155th Anniversary
FAQs for Commission
The information below is intended to provide background and information about the proposed Commission for the CNCS 155th anniversary in 2027. There is also information about the composer and librettist who have been chosen.
Why are we doing this?
CNCS rehearses and performs music which has been commissioned from composers over centuries. Patronage of the arts is how music exists for choirs to perform. When Ben joined us as Music Director in 2022, and the Committee at the time was discussing how to mark the Choir’s forthcoming significant anniversary, commissioning a piece of music was decided on as a permanent way to do this, in addition to any other activity which will go into celebrating our 155th season in 2026-2027.
Historic context
When the Choir began in 1872, Faure, Dvorak, Liszt, Franck, Bizet, Saint-Saens and Wagner were all actively composing choral and orchestral works, pushing boundaries and contributing to the canon of music which is still performed today. Looking back over recent previous programmes, CNCS has performed various commissioned pieces, including:
- Elgar’s ‘The Music Makers’ commissioned for first performance in 1912 by the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival
- Karl Jenkins ‘The Armed Man’ was commissioned for the Millennium by the Royal Armouries Museum and dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis
- Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’ was commissioned by the Chichester Festival Chorus in 1963
- Will Todd’s ‘Mass in Blue’ was commissioned by the Hertfordshire Chorus in 2003
All this to show that Choral Societies like CNCS can and do commission significant pieces which have an enduring place in the overall canon of choral music.
Current context
If you’re worried that a new, modern composition will be unsingable or forgettable, there are a wide range of 20th and 21st century pieces which are regularly performed, such as Eric Whitacre’s ‘The Seal Lullaby’, Morten Lauridsen’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ or James MacMillan’s ‘O Radiant Dawn’ – all commissions by ‘ordinary’ organisations like CNCS.
Who is Ben Parry, and why are we working with him?
Ben Parry is formerly a member of the Swingle Singers, and Assistant Director of Music for King’s College, Cambridge. Until last year he was Artistic Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, and is Director of London Voices. He is a well-known arranger and composer and CNCS will be singing one of his carol arrangements for our December 2024 concert. He is also known to Ben Goodall, who is a NYCGB alumnus and former participant in the NYCGB Fellowship Scheme.
His website is here, and showcases a range of his work. He is pleased to have been asked to work with CNCS and has also previously worked with Hazel Gould, the librettist we have provisionally engaged.
The following links tell you more about Ben P and his work:
benparry.net
youtube.com/watch?v=_AGvSsUJF3E
This link will take you to a video about a libretto which Hazel created with school
children for Garsington Opera in 2019:
facebook.com/watch/?v=895128047932455
How much will this cost?
We propose to commission an anthem of 12-15 minutes, and so we need to raise around £20k to cover the fee for Ben P, Hazel and the costs of any orchestration and publication. The Committee is clear that the choir’s financial reserves will not be used for the Commission, although it would be within our charitable objects of the Constitution if we chose to do so.
How will we raise the money?
Work on this has already started, with Ben G and Eric Clubley (Bass and our immediate past Chair) successfully engaging with some local organisations and individuals. Sarah Mortimer (Soprano and CNCS Committee Member) and Deborah Jackson (Alto and CYC Committee member) are taking this forward with approaches to grant-making trusts and foundations who support the Arts and community music-making. We have already raised £6k which has got us off to a good start.
Approaches will be made to members past and present for people to donate if they wish, and contributions will be acknowledged for the premiere unless donors wish to remain anonymous.
The Committee also believes that a range of fundraising events put on by, and supported by, members would prove enjoyable and sociable with an additional benefit of raising money. A number of suggestions have been put forward already.
There are a number of ways in which this could be approached, such as a fundraising events committee who would take responsibility for organising a range of events (separate to the bids process already under way). Alternatively a fundraising coordinator would work with small groups of members to put on specific events, and those members would then step back after their event was completed.
What’s the timetable?
The premiere is on 15 May 2027, so we will start rehearsals in January 2027. Ben P and Hazel need to work together from around June 2026, and we will need to pay around 50% of the fee to each of them by the end of 2025.
– 16th September 2024