The Sixteen
Voice of Angels
Saturday 24th May 2025 7.30pm
St John’s Church, Cumnock, KA18 1JU
'Angels are all around us.' So started a discussion between John Studzinski (philanthropist and founder of the Genesis Foundation) and the late Robert Willis (poet, cleric and Dean of Canterbury Cathedral until 2022). Often angels are introduced into stories and creative art as signs of a spiritual dimension which is beyond our human conceiving.
There is, in fact, a much wider acceptance of the concept of angels in the minds and hearts of people of all faiths and none. Robert was commissioned by John to write a series of poems about Angels as messengers, ministers, warriors and worshippers, with John then commissioning three young composers to set these poems to music.
The result is three wonderfully contrasting works by Lucy Walker, Millicent B. James and Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, forming the core of a programme devoted to texts reflecting the importance of angels in the present and the past. These new commissions sit alongside works by three great masters of the Renaissance — Guerrero, Palestrina and Victoria — and a piece by one of today’s most admired composers, Sir James MacMillan.
Programme
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers conductor
Guerrero Duo Seraphim
Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade The Call of Gideon (Genesis Foundation new commission)
Victoria Ne timeas Maria
14th- century Angelus ad virginem
Victoria Alma redemptoris mater a8
Millicent B. James The Call of Isaiah (Genesis Foundation new commission)
Palestrina Angelus Domini descendit de caelis
Lucy Walker The Song of James the Son of Zebedee (Genesis Foundation new commission)
Palestrina Ave Maria
James MacMillan Nothing in vain (commissioned by the Genesis Foundation 2021)
Event information
7.30pm on Saturday 26th October 2024
Approx running time 2 hours (including 15 minute interval)
Tickets
Full price: £20
Local Residents and Students: £15
Registered Unemployed and Under 18s: £5
St John’s Church
92 Glaisnock Street KA18 1JU
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