What inspired the programme you’re bringing to the Holy Week Festival? Tell us a bit about the music and what we should listen out for. The Mass in B Minor is Bach’s final great work, a testament of his life’s work. For me it is deeply philosophical, and one can sense completely what Bach the… continued

What inspired the programme you’re bringing to the Holy Week Festival? Tell us a bit about the music and what we should listen out for. Our concert consists entirely of various settings of the famous Easter text Crucifixus pro nobis. Whilst some interpretations we will present date back to the early 1700s, we will be performing… continued

What inspired the programme you’re bringing to the Holy Week Festival? Tell us a bit about the music and what we should listen out for. We’re performing an amazing eight-part mass setting for Easter by the late Renaissance composer Hieronymus Praetorius. It’s effervescent music. We’ve contrasted it with a series of motets for Holy Week… continued

And so after a couple of unusually quiet months for Tenebrae we dived straight into our Holy Week Festival at St John’s, Smith Square, full of energy and purpose. This year the Festival had a focus on the wonderful and highly atmospheric music of composer Sir James MacMillan, celebrating his 60th birthday this year. All… continued

What inspired the programme you’re bringing to the Holy Week Festival? Tell us a bit about the music and what we should listen out for. Northern Rites is a programme that combines music by James MacMillan with pieces and arrangements from various Scandinavian traditions. I was struck by the stylistic resonances between much of this… continued

What inspired the programme you’re bringing to the Holy Week Festival? Tell us a bit about the music and what we should listen out for. Shortly after the Festival, we (Siglo de Oro) will be recording a disc of music that features the more-or-less unknown composer Matthias Werrecore. So I have built a programme around… continued

As a composer-conductor, what are the some of the differences between conducting your own music and listening to others’ interpretations? Do you have a preference? When I conduct a piece of my own, I have to learn it from scratch again, just as if it was someone else’s music. A different mind set is needed… continued

What inspired the programme you’re bringing to the Holy Week Festival? Tell us a bit about the music and what we should listen out for. I’ve assembled a Lenten Sequence for our performance on Holy Saturday, which includes settings of the Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday, Passiontide motets appropriate for the Easter Triduum, and a… continued

Tenebrae performing at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, USA. Credit: Rene Zajner. March took Tenebrae to the US for another tour of fabulous concert venues and ecclesiastical spaces. This time round we were performing Joby Talbot’s choral extravaganza Path of Miracles. Needless to say there were brilliant performances from everyone involved, but special mentions… continued

Well, what a crazy but musically rewarding month March has been. With the USA tour and the Holy Week Festival at St John’s Smith Square taking up much of the month, I’ve found a bit of time post-Easter to reflect on some of my recent experiences as an Associate Artist this year. At the beginning… continued

We’re really pleased with how well the 2018 Holy Week Festival went. We had concerts from Ex Cathedra, Temple Church Choir, our own concert of Pärt’s Passio with Aurora Orchestra, a Come and Sing Messiah, Polyphony with the Britten Sinfonia and our first international artist to join us for this festival, Skylark Ensemble. The week finished… continued