London Oriana Choir brings Women Composers Festival to Southbank Centre

Florence Lockheart
Tuesday, June 28, 2022

The festival will take place on 9 July and will feature guest choirs Southern Spirit Singers, Edinburgh Singers and Archer Academy choir

The London Oriana Choir will be joined by the Southern Spirit Singers, pictured above at the 2019 European Choir Games in Gothenburg where the choir won four gold medals
The London Oriana Choir will be joined by the Southern Spirit Singers, pictured above at the 2019 European Choir Games in Gothenburg where the choir won four gold medals

The London Oriana Choir's Women Composers Festival will take place on 9 July 2022 at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The festival brings together three guest choirs from around the UK for an evening of choral music by women composers.

The Southern Spirit Singers, Edinburgh Singers and Archer Academy choir will join the London Oriana Choir to mark the culmination of the choir’s pioneering five15 campaign championing women composers through the commissioning of 15 choral works from five composers over five years.

Dominic Ellis-Peckham, musical director of London Oriana Choir, said: ‘We are so very proud of what five15 has achieved since its inception, playing a key role in improving the much-deserved recognition of women composers today. We have worked with some amazing women, helped their careers move forward and expanded our own concert programming to represent a far wider gender diversity.

The concert programme includes commissions from five15 composers Jessica Curry, Cheryl Francis-Hoad, Rebecca Dale, Anna Disley-Simpson and current composer in residence Hannah Kendall as well as music from women composers including Cecelia McDowall, Judith Weir and Annie Lennox. The concert will also feature a world premiere of In Lak'ech (You are my other me) by composer and London Oriana Choir singer Tara Mack.

London Oriana Choir are due to release an album of all the commissions from their five15 programme with label nonclassical next year. To celebrate the concert the choir will be self-releasing In the Blue, a commission they made with competition winner Anna Disley-Simpson, the day before the concert (8 July)

You can find out more about this concert including tickets here.