A new work for soprano, chorus and strings by Chester Music composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad will be premiered on Sunday August 25 at Southwell Minster. With What Sudden Joy was commissioned by Southwell Music Festival in celebration of its tenth anniversary in 2024 with generous support from Wendy Chetwin, a founding supporter and friend of the Festival. The new work will be premiered as part of the Festival’s Sunday night performance of Mozart’s Requiem and will be a contemporary companion piece to Mozart’s captivating choral masterpiece. The new commission will also premiere in Scotland later this year and then in Northern Ireland and Wales in 2025.
Cheryl Frances-Hoad has collaborated once again with the poet Kate Wakeling on this project. Wakeling also provided text for Everything Grows Extravagantly (2021) and The Thought Machine (2016). Marcus Farnsworth will conduct the soprano Alison Rose and the Festival Voices and Festival Sinfonia.
