The Choir has today released a recorded collection of three choral works by King's alumna and esteemed composer Errollyn Wallen. Peace on Earth features three contrasting choral works including See that I am God and Pace, alongside the title work Peace on Earth.
Born in Belize, Errollyn Wallen gave up her training at the Dance Theater of Harlem, New York to study composition in the UK, including at King's College. She is both a respected singer-songwriter of pop-influence songs as well as one of the UK's most admired classical composers. Her works Principia and Spirit in Motion were commissioned for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, and more recently her arrangement of Hubert Parry's Jerusalem was premiered at the BBC's Last Night of the Proms.
Peace on Earth follows the release of the Choir's album Bruckner: E Minor Mass and Motets, recorded in June 2019 with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. It is poignant as the last album to be released under the direction of the late Sir Stephen Cleobury, and includes a specially-written Appreciation of him by his friend and colleague Professor Iain Fenlon.
"What Cleobury gets so effectively from this choir is the sense of everyone singing their socks off; as a valedictory farewell that’s incredibly moving.
"I’m absolutely in awe of the engineering on this recording. You’ve got fifteen wind and brass instruments, plus eight-part choir in Ecce sacerdos, with three trombones and an organ, and yet the vertical clarity you have running through the counterpoint is absolute: there’s never a moment where it feels smudged. The soft-focus motets that we know as so much the bread-and-butter repertoire of Evensong at King’s: there’s a real sense of tradition in the way they sing them; they just hang in the air – just glorious.
"All in all it's the perfect final recording from the late Stephen Cleobury."
– BBC Radio 3, Record Review
Peace on Earth is available now to stream and download.
Bruckner: E Minor Mass and Motets is available to buy in surround-sound CD, to stream and download.
