A Public Update – Huanui Music Composer in Residence – Launch and Plan
A report on ‘A Musical Soirée “At Home” For Members, Sponsors and Friends’. On the evening of the 31st of July, Huanui Music Society, members, sponsors and friends were joined together in celebration of the beginning of the Composer in Residency awarded to Miss Cheryl Frances-Hoad.
Held at the home of Steve Black and Sue Lloyd, this evening was a varied and engaging series of performances from professional musicians. To welcome the evening in, James Hatton performed an opening trumpet fanfare and drinks and canapes were served before the evening’s musical entertainment. The concert began with Invocatio for string quartet followed by Two Shakespeare songs performed by soprano, Deborah Bideau and Francois Cloete.
Other performances of Frances-Hoad’s works included Bouleumeta, a work performed by Peter Bourne on clarinet. The evening ended with a beautiful performance of Pay Close Attention, performed by Nicole Wyatt, Sarah van Vlymen, Chiara Beebe and Francois Cloete. At the end of the evening, the Bailiff of Guernsey Sir Richard McMahon made a toast to the success of the new composer in residency position and a thank you, to Cheryl Frances-Hoad and her works and the incredible performances from the evening.
This was Frances-Hoad’s second visit to the Bailiwick and visited Sark and Alderney during her stay. She is currently reading Toilers of the Sea and looks forward to composing works inspired by the images conjured up by Victor Hugo and would like to retake the long walks Hugo enjoyed on the Island. The concert ended with an air of excitement for the upcoming new works from Huanui Music Society’s Composer in Residence. We thank would like to thank Ella for her waitressing and to Town Church and Troy and Will and to Mill Street Café & David Savident for their help and support for the evening.
We look forward to updating you with the residency’s music and events for 2025, and sending you details of our annual St. Cecilia Feast Day Concert, at Town Church, on Friday 22nd November.
Best and kindest wishes,
Jonathan, David and Emily
@huanuimusic.gsy
Personal message from Cheryl …
It was an utter joy to visit Guernsey for a second time, and also visit Alderney and Sark. I am so grateful to the musicians for throwing themselves into playing my music: their dedication and enthusiasm gave me a huge boost and I left the Island feeling happy and inspired. Thanks too to Jono Bates and Huanui Music, and all those who attended, for making the event so special. Since leaving Guernsey I have started reading Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea, and I seem to get ideas for new pieces from every page! I am so looking forward to getting to know the Channel Islands better, and to taking inspiration from their culture, history, people and landscapes.
I am immensely grateful to be welcomed by your music society in Guernsey and proud and honoured to have been appointed Composer in Residence. I am looking forward to returning to Guernsey in November for a few days, when I plan to visit the Victor Hugo Museum, and perhaps retrace some of his steps on long walks. I’m delighted that my visit will coincide with the annual St. Cecelia’s Feast Day Concert at Town Church organised and promoted by Huanui Music Society.
It would be wonderful to be able to compose two works for the 80th Anniversary of Liberation next May: an Anthem for liturgical use, and a song that can be sung by singers young and old.
Below are a few links to examples of my work in this vein:
One Earth, a climate change song composed for children between 6-10 years old
The Merton Service, a set of Canticles written for Merton College, Oxford that have since been sung in services from Exeter to Glasgow, Cambridge to Westminster Abbey (N.B. this link is for the whole Evensong – for my Magnificat please go to 15 mins 30 secs, and for the Nunc Dimittis 21 mins 20 secs
Finally, for examples of my music for special occasions, please see Your Servant, Elizabeth, commissioned by the BBC Proms, for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, and picked by Ivan Hewitt in The Telegraph as the best new work of the 2022 Proms, and
Beyond the Night Sky, commissioned by Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, for Professor Stephen Hawking’s 75th Birthday (and later sung at his funeral: please see the videos below for a full performance of the work, and a separate mini-documentary, featuring Professor Hawking’s verdict on my new choral work!
I shall leave you with an article published on the Gramophone website today about my upcoming premiere in Southwell, Nottingham.
Comments are closed.