Bernard Hughes’s BBC commission Birdchant is be premiered in the BBC Proms 2021. Written for the BBC Singers and their chief conductor Sofi Jeanin it will be heard at the Royal Albert Hall on 19 August, in a programme of new choral responses to older works. Birdchant takes as its starting point Clement Janequin’s Le Chant des Oyseaux and is programmed alongside new music by Nico Muhly and Shiva Feshareki.
Bernard Hughes’s choral work I Sing of Love has been nominated for the prestigious Ivors Composer Awards. Written for the Seattle Pro Musica, Seen and Heard International said of the premiere ‘the style is approachable but not bland; and the piece moves to its expressive climax with a strong sense of inevitability.’ I Sing of Love received its UK premiere in January by the BBC Singers, conducted by Eamonn Dougan, and has been shortlisted in the Choral category of this year’s awards. The winners will be announced on 1 December in a broadcast on BBC Radio 3. (Listen to I Sing of Love on Spotify or YouTube.)
The new album Not Now, Bernard & Other Stories, featuring music by Bernard Hughes, narrated by Alexander Armstrong, was released in all formats on 7 February 2020. It has been a no.1 ‘Hot Release’ on Amazon.co.uk and reviewed on the Classical Review. See the Orchid Classics album page for more information and links.
Not Now, Bernard and Other Stories, a new album of music for all the family, featuring premiere recordings of music by Bernard Hughes, Judith Weir and Malcolm Arnold, and narrated by Alexander Armstrong, is now available for pre-order from Amazon or Presto Classical. The album features the Orchestra of the Swan, conducted by Tom Hammond, and will be released on Orchid Classics on 7 February 2020.
The award-winning Farnham Youth Choir will be performing Bernard Hughes’s upper-voice carol ‘Awake, glad heart’ on Saturday 14 December, as part of their Christmas concert. FYC, twice UK Choir of the Year, recently won gold at the European Choir Games in Gothenburg. The performance will be conducted by the artistic director Joanna Tomlinson at the Farnham Maltings in a concert marking the choir’s 35th anniversary. ‘Awake, glad heart’ is published by Wild Woods Music.
Bernard Hughes’s setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis will be premiered by the chapel choir of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge at Evening Prayer on Sunday 17 November 2019. Written specially for the choir, the setting for SATB choir and organ will be conducted by the college’s director of music, Catherine Groom. The service is at 6.30pm and open to the public.
Bernard Hughes’s setting of James Mayhew’s The Knight Who Took All Day is getting its latest performance by the Saffron Walden Symphony Orchestra on Sunday 6 October. The family concert will feature James Mayhew and Antonio Reche narrating and illustrating the story, with the SWSO conducted by Richard Hull. The piece will also feature on a new album being released in February 2020 on Orchid Classics - more news to follow…
Bernard Hughes’s new introit Seek the Peace of the City, commissioned by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, will be premiered as part of Choral Evensong on Wednesday 15 May. The service will be broadcast live on at 3.30pm BBC Radio 3 from St Pancras Parish Church in London, conducted by Christopher Batchelor, and will also include new music by Sarah Cattley, Joshua Ballance, Deborah Pritchard and Alex Woolf.
