Concerts & Repertoire

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Kim André Arnesen

One of the most frequently performed contemporary choral composers, Kim André Arnesen (b. 1980), is a classical composer from Trondheim, Norway. Although he was an avid follower of MTV and a huge fan of The Cure at ten years old, he also studied classical piano, sang as a chorister in the Nidaros Cathedral Boys’ Choir, and received his education at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim. With a deep interest in baroque, contemporary classical, and popular music, his musical career could have ventured down many paths; however, choral music became his greatest passion.

Commissioned for the St. Olaf Festival in 2011, Even When He is Silent is a poignant and introspective choral work. The music is inspired by a short but deeply moving text, written by a Jewish individual hiding during World War II, and found scratched on the wall of a cellar in Cologne, Germany.

The music, with its lush chords and challenging vocal lines, mirrors the text’s emotional journey. The composition reflects on what can be taken away from us, like the sun and love, but it reminds us that even in the bleakest of circumstances, we can hold onto our hope and faith.

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Anna Disley-Simpson

Anna Disley-Simpson is an award-winning composer and performer originally from Dorset. She studied Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music before spending two years as the Graduate Musician-in-Residence at Radley College in Oxfordshire, where she taught music technology and composition, and ran a weekly popular music programme. She is now based in London.

The range of Anna’s creative output extends from uplifting vocal works and catchy pop songs to fragile electronic soundscapes and experimental multimedia installation pieces. Her work has been performed by many ensembles, including the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the No Dice Collective, the Kantos Chamber Choir, the Juice Vocal Ensemble, the ORA Singers, the Hermes Experiment, the Gesualdo Six, and the BBC Singers and members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In the Blue is a commissioned piece for the London Oriana Choir and was released in 2022. The piece is based on a poem by Alice Freeman Palmer and was part of a commission from the five15 programme, which promotes women composers.

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Melissa Dunphy

I hear the text as relevant far beyond its liturgical purpose; it becomes a plaintive call for light in the form of love, knowledge, and peace both in the world and within each of us personally, particularly for those of us who have suffered from depression or grief

The text of O Oriens focuses on the themes of light and enlightenment. Dunphy has fused the traditional plainsong setting as the inspiration, spreading the chant through the voices and weaving beautiful harmonic changes to create something very modern but with ancient roots.

Dunphy was born in Australia and emigrated to USA in 2003. She has a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. from West Chester University and is on faculty at Rutgers University. Her works have been performed by The King's Singers and VOCES8 and have featured in the Proms.

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Mia Makaroff

Mia Makaroff (b.1970) is a composer, arranger, music teacher and a choir conductor. In 2003, she graduated from the Sibelius Academy as a Master of Music in Music Education studies. Her thesis was about creating a music teaching pedagogy using the therapeutical sides of music especially aimed at preventing youth drug addiction.

Mia Makaroff's work includes teaching music to school children and young people, composing, creating and conducting different music projects. Song-writing projects for young people are a speciality of hers: altogether six school musicals have been written and performed by her pupils. Finnish folklore and poetry are great sources of inspiration in her composing work.

Mia said of her best known work, Butterfly: "I wrote it many, many years ago... for the Finnish vocal ensemble Rajaton. It was actually my self-therapy song quite a long time before that, because I was just experiencing a divorce and life was still a bit rough then."

"I found myself just playing this song, it just came out of nowhere... This was a very special song because the lyrics and the melody came like a flash."

...little did I know that it was going to be so successful

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Louise Marshall

I am a quirky musician who loves the experimental craziness that comes with the harmonious stories in my head

Primarily a performer, Marshall's output spans multiple genres. She is most famous for headlining with Jools Holland but has also performed with such iconic singers as Beverley Knight, Chaka Khan, Michael Ball, Paul Weller. Earlier in her career, Louise was in several West End shows and sang in choirs including Adiemus, with Karl Jenkins, and with John Rutter.

As a composer and arranger, Marshall's influences in jazz and gospel are clear. Precious Lord is a luscious arrangement, showcasing gospel harmonies, cross-rhythms and syncopation. It combines the exhilaration of a funky arrangement with the soulful and respectful treatment of the prayer by Thomas A Dorsey, which is a cry for help during tragic times.

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Cecilia McDowall

One of the most evocative pieces in this exciting performance is by the renowned British Composer Cecilia McDowall. A setting of one of the seven Advent 'O' Antiphons, O Oriens makes use of luxurious and exotic harmonies, creating a shimmering texture reminiscent of the biblical Morning Star referenced in the title. The focus on human enlightenment in winter's darkness means the piece is equally suitable for secular celebrations of Christmas. It was commissioned for the Choir of Merton College, Oxford, and in 2013 was shortlisted for a British Composer Award.

Born in 1951, McDowall, a long-time collaborator of Artistic Director Dominic Ellis-Peckham, has been described by the International Record Review as having a 'communicative gift that is very rare in modern music. Her work is often inspired by extra-musical influences and combines rhythmic vitality with expressive lyricism. In 2017 McDowall was selected for an Honorary Fellow award by the Royal School of Church Music.

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Ben Parry

Perhaps the most poigniant and reflective piece in the inaurgural performance by Suffolk Chamber Choir is from Suffolk-born Conductor, Singer and Composer - Ben Parry. To be sung 'like a mantra', Ben Parry’s Lighten our Darkness is a meditation on the Third Collect for Evensong from the Book of Common Prayer. It was written for the annual concert for Gift of Sight, a charity supporting research at the University of Southampton into the treatment of blinding eye diseases.

Sun Soul, with lyrics by Garth Bardsley, is one of two concert pieces written for Aldeburgh Voices in 2011. Bardsley’s text explores the wonders of sunrise and sunset and captures something of the corporeal nature of light. Parry’s response embraces the tenderness of dawn and dusk, and the majesty of the day.

Ben Parry has a busy career as a conductor, composer, arranger, singer and producer. He is currently Director of the professional choir, London Voices, with whom he has performed in concert halls and festivals worldwide. London Voices performed the premiere of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in Birmingham Festival and Berio's Sinfonia with the National Youth Orchestra in 2009, at the BBC Proms in 2014 and 2018 and most recently in Alicante, Spain in February 2025.