15th February sees the long-awaited (thanks to the pandemic) UK premiere of 'Alma's Songs without Words' - Roxanna's orchestrations of Alma Mahler's beautiful songs, commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with conductor Valentina Peleggi. First night will be at Glasgow's City Halls: Grand Hall and on the 16th at Inverness's Eden Court Theatre. Then Palestine's wonderful Amwaj Choir are touring 'Dalia Suite' around France - a sneak preview of excerpts at Brussels' Notre Dame de Victoires au Sablon on 22nd February, world premiere of the full Suite at Saint-Omer's (France) Theatre La Barcarolle then on to Institut de Monde Arabe, Paris.
Catch up with Roxanna's two BBC Proms appearances, this Summer - 'Mindful Mix' with VOCES8 & the Carducci Quartet premiered Floral Tribute, co-commissioned by VOCES8 & the BBC Proms, a setting of poet laureate Simon Armitage's beautiful tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth. Watch here (at 1:02:31) or listen here (55:57). The re-live the Coronation with a new orchestration of Coronation Sanctus receiving its world premiere at the Last Night of the Proms. Watch here (41:14) or listen here (39:00).
After a fabulous premiere of Coronation Sanctus , Roxanna is revving up for a packed Summer. On 21st July she will make her debut with Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in her 2-conductor piece 'Across the Line of Dreams' at Ravinia Festival, with Marin Alsop & Valentina Peleggi. Next premiere will be 'Jesu, my Delighting' for Berlin's Bundesjugenchor + Baroque 'cello and continuo organ, in Ansbach Germany 3rd August. Then her joint BBC Proms & VOCES8 commission 'Floral Tribute' at the Royal Albert Hall on 9th August. 25th - 29th August, Roxanna will be featured composer at Presteigne Festival where 5 of her works will be performed, including the world premiere of song cycle 'Gallery of Memories' (sung by Zoe Drummond and accompanied by Chris Hopkins) will take place, on the 26th. (More details on Roxanna's Performances page)
Roxanna is thrilled and deeply honoured to be commissioned by King Charles III to write some music for his coronation at Westminster Abbey on 6th May, this year. More details to follow...
Roxanna has arranged an achingly beautiful Ukrainian lullaby-style carol 'Sleep, Jesus, Sleep' (Spy, Isuse, Spy), in aid of refugees of all nationalities. The single with Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir, Ukrainian soprano Inna Husieva and Afghan Tabla player Sulaiman Haqpana (because since Putin announced his "special military operation" in Ukraine, the many thousands of still homeless Afghan refugees the UK airlifted out of Kabul last year have been all but forgotten) has been released on Signum Classics https://lnk.to/SleepJesusSleep with all funds going to the Refugee Council. Roxanna also sent the sheet music to every choral director she knew (and some she didn't!) with an 'honesty box' policy - asking them to donate £3 to https://www.gofundme.com/manage/refugee-fundraising-carol for every copy they printed out. As a result there are 50 live performances this Christmas and Epiphany in cathedrals, churches, concert halls and schools all over the UK, Belfast and Philadelphia (see Performances page for details) and over £4,800 raised for this very special cause. Christmas Spirit is well and truly alive!
Commissioned and premiered by Garsington Opera on 28th, 30th & 31st July 2022, 'Dalia' told the story of a Syrian refugee girl, in her early teens, fostered in the UK. Dalia struggles with this new very alien culture and xenophobic, nosy neighbours but finds hope, joy and acceptance through becoming a national youth cricket champion. Performed to a packed house every night, The Telegraph and The Observer both gave the opera four stars, describing it as ".. an excellent season-closer features a richly textured score and life-changing debuts." and "Garsington's refugee community opera bowls everyone over. ...sharp, embracing and affecting", respectively.
Over the next three months, premieres abound - new choral works for Twickenham Choral's centenary celebrations, Southwell Minster's adoration of their stunning architectural leaves, Bath Abbey girl chorister's 25th anniversary and a cheeky reworking of Sir Andrzej Panufnik's Five Polish Folksongs for City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and their associated youth and children's choirs. Then follows a new piano work 'Babylonia' commissioned and performed by Margaret Fingerhut at Ryedale Festival and last, but so definitely not least, 'Dalia' a new opera for Garsington Opera Festival. Check out my Performance page for further details!
Catch Roxanna speaking LIVE online with Jessica Duchen Tuesday 2nd March about her approach to spiritual music, hosted by University of Edinburgh's School of Divinity. Click here for tickets/access!
Oboist Chris O'Neal and the London Mozart Players will open Wimbledon Choral Society's concert at London's Cadogan Hall with Roxanna's Letters from Burma on 27th November, 2021. Click here for tickets!
WHAT DO YOU GET if you mix a European brown bear's heartbeat, a string quartet and a highly emotional composer? Why, Lament for a Bulgarian Dancing Bear which is the track seeming to attract the most attention, so far, from Roxanna's latest Signum Classics release Heartfelt! The Sacconi Quartet are joined by a star-studded cast of the UK's finest soloists in a new CD of Roxanna's chamber music available here. Watch a beautiful short film made by Joe Morgan about the title tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ4Yr0jGG4o&t=66s
On Friday 18th September at 1pm, trombonist Peter Moore will perform Roxanna's unashamedly romantic "When you Appear", based on Neruda's poem La Reina. Further details here. On Wednesday 23rd September at 7:30pm, the Sacconi will give the concert world premiere of "Heartfelt" which takes its inspiration from 18th century Uzbek court musicians and uses the heart beat of a Bulgarian dancing bear. Details not yet available online but it will be streamed from the same website as the first concert.
VOCES8 will give the Russian premiere of Love Endureth at St Andrew's Anglican Church in Moscow, on 8th February 2020. Further performances are also planned at the WSCM Symposium in Auckland, on 12th and 14th July. This heralds the beginning of Roxanna's Residency with the über-choir - watch this space for further exciting developments!
Absolutely NO CHRISTMAS MUSIC will feature in Roxanna's final concert of the year - several of her works will be featured in the culmination of King's Place's "Venus Unwrapped" festival, on 20th December in London. The programme also includes Tavener and Owain Park and be performed by the fabulous Gesualdo Six and the brilliant Brodsky Quartet. Come and join the fun - tickets and more information here!
Roxanna will be Ryedale Festival’s Compose in Residence, this year. Spend the afternoon of Sunday 21st July with her being grilled by Katy Hamilton, interspersed with performances of her chamber works. In the festival’s grand finale, bassoonist Amy Harman will give the premiere of the new orchestral version of “Cantator & Amanda” with Royal Northern Sinfonia, conducted by Bradley Keswick. Further details here »
On Valentine's Day, Tasmin Little will be performing Roxanna's "Four World Seasons" at Ealing Music Festival and 2 days before, her Love Abide album will be reissued by Signum, a multi-faith programme inspired by love which "radiates heart-warming positivity" (Classical Music Magazine).
November 2018 is packed with premieres! Faithful Journey - a Mass for Poland in Katowice and Birmingham (9th Nov & 21st Nov respectively), When You Appear on 12th Nov at Vienna's Musikverein, and The Gift of Music on 25th Nov in Lagos - see Performance Schedule for more details...
Roxanna has been commissioned to write the new work for the Last Night of the Proms, 8th September 2018. Broadcast LIVE on BBC2 and Radio 3, "Songs of Darkness, Dreams of Light" involves the BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus & BBC Symphony Orchestra. Sir Andrew Davis will conduct and the piece, which sets words by Isaac Rosenberg and Khalil Gibran, marries an Ashkenazy Jewish prayer mode, Maronite Syriac chant and Sufi rhythms and structure.
The world premiere of Love Bade Me Welcome will take place at King's College Cambridge, with the King's Voices and Ben Parry conducting at Evensong on 26th February 2018. The melody appeared to Rev. John Penny after his son Andrew, at only a few days old, suddenly died and some 20 years late Rev. Penny approached Roxanna to arrange it. A gentle rocking and lullaby-like setting of this beautiful George Herbert poem, proceeds from performances and sheet music sales will go to the stillbirth charity Sands.