The award-winning Farnham Youth Choir will be performing Bernard Hughes’s upper-voice carol ‘Awake, glad heart’ on Saturday 14 December, as part of their Christmas concert. FYC, twice UK Choir of the Year, recently won gold at the European Choir Games in Gothenburg. The performance will be conducted by the artistic director Joanna Tomlinson at the Farnham Maltings in a concert marking the choir’s 35th anniversary. ‘Awake, glad heart’ is published by Wild Woods Music.
Bernard Hughes’s setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis will be premiered by the chapel choir of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge at Evening Prayer on Sunday 17 November 2019. Written specially for the choir, the setting for SATB choir and organ will be conducted by the college’s director of music, Catherine Groom. The service is at 6.30pm and open to the public.
Bernard Hughes’s setting of James Mayhew’s The Knight Who Took All Day is getting its latest performance by the Saffron Walden Symphony Orchestra on Sunday 6 October. The family concert will feature James Mayhew and Antonio Reche narrating and illustrating the story, with the SWSO conducted by Richard Hull. The piece will also feature on a new album being released in February 2020 on Orchid Classics - more news to follow…
Bernard Hughes’s new introit Seek the Peace of the City, commissioned by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, will be premiered as part of Choral Evensong on Wednesday 15 May. The service will be broadcast live on at 3.30pm BBC Radio 3 from St Pancras Parish Church in London, conducted by Christopher Batchelor, and will also include new music by Sarah Cattley, Joshua Ballance, Deborah Pritchard and Alex Woolf.
Bernard Hughes’s setting of the Benedicite will receive its world premiere at Jesus College, Cambridge in May 2019. The anthem, setting a text from the Book of Common Prayer, will be performed as part of Choral Evensong at 6pm on Sunday 26 May, sung by the college choir and conducted by the college’s Director of Music, Richard Pinel. The service is open to the public.
Bernard’s pair of pieces for narrator and symphony orchestra Bernard & Isabel is receiving its latest performance by the Camden Symphony Orchestra on Saturday 23 March, as part of the orchestra’s family concert. Based on two classic stories by the author and illustrator David McKee, Bernard Hughes’s settings have been widely performed since their premiere in 2009. The Camden SO performance will be conducted by Lev Parikian at St John’s Waterloo at 3pm on 23 March - tickets are available now.
Bernard’s piece for narrator and orchestra The Knight Who Took All Day is getting its latest performance by the City of Southampton Orchestra on Saturday 19 January 2018. The story is about a knight who is keen to take on the fiery dragon but is just too busy getting ready. The Knight is a musical setting of the book by James Mayhew, who will be live illustrating the performance in his inimitable style, with narration by Phil Cheesman and John Traill conducting. The concerts are at 11am and 2pm on 19 January at Central Hall, Southampton and tickets are available now.
Bernard’s The Shepherds’ Carol is being sung by the Lloyd’s Choir as part of their annual carol service on Thursday 13 December 2018. The concert, conducted by musical director Jacques Cohen will be at 6.45 at St Katharine Cree church EC3A 3DH. The Lloyd’s Choir is a 75-strong choir taking its singers from the financial community of the City of London, and the concert is open to the public (tickets £15).
