St Martin-in-the-FieldsTrafalgar Square

London WC2N 4JJ

020 7766 1100 www.smitf.org

Available to watch for 30 days as many times as you like from Monday 31 May

Will Todd EnsembleSt Martin's VoicesSongs of Love

PROGRAMME

All works composed or arranged by Will Todd (b.1970)

O Sun and Moon from Footprints

from Songs of Love i. I Love You

ii. A Kiss iii. I Sing Because

Just As I Am from Songs of Peace

Stabat Mater from Passion Music

Kyrie from Jazz Missa Brevis

Come Down O Love Divine

Amazing Grace

Like A Rainbow Shining

Hey Music from When Music Sounds

AN INTRODUCTIONby Will Todd

Welcome to this programme of my choral jazz music with St Martin's Voices and the Will Todd Ensemble recorded live at St Martin-in-the-Fields in March 2021. It is so wonderful to be making music again, and the pieces chosen aim to reflect some of the variety of my music, from the soulful and hauntingly textured ‘I Love You’ in the Songs of Love through to the energetic ‘Hey Music’ from When Music Sounds which closes out the programme. In between there are lots of opportunities for my extraordinary jazz colleagues to solo and weave around the choir and the singers are, as always, a delight to work with, giving the music style, sheen and energy. Massive thanks to everyone involved in making this concert possible. We hope you enjoy watching and listening as much as we have enjoyed making music together.

PROGRAMME NOTESby Will Todd, Tyalgum Press, and Sarah Maxted

O Sun and Moon is an upbeat song which features as the final movement of the jazz choral suite Footprints, commissioned by the St George's Singers in 2012. The suite is inspired by Mary Stevenson's poem Footprints in the Sand. Whilst the original poem has a clear religious tone, the reflective text by Will draws on the more universal elements also present in Stevenson’s poetry, exploring our shared need for friendship amidst the vastness, power and timelessness of the universe.

Songs of Love is structured in three movements: I Love You, A Kiss and I Sing Because. It was commissioned in 2012 by Elena Sharkova for the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale, who premiered the work in San Jose during July of that year. The movements set poems by American writer Nils Peterson, which are based on original Greek poems by Maria Polydouri. Both Songs of Love and the complete Footprints choral suite are available on the album ‘Footprints’ recorded in 2014 by the Wellensian Consort, conducted by Christopher Finch.

Inspired by the well-known Charlotte Elliott hymn, Just As I Am is a beautiful arrangement with its roots in a personal tribute. Will writes, “At my mother's funeral I performed a jazz piano improvisation on the famous hymn tune, Just As I Am, which was one of her favourites. This sung version is a development of that improvisation, allowing the choral sound to add a gospel style joy to the music. It forms the third movement of my Songs of Peace choral suite for choir and jazz ensemble.”

Stabat Mater is an evocative setting of three verses of the liturgical Stabat Mater text, describing the sorrow of Mary, mother of Jesus, at the foot of the cross. With its extended passages for unaccompanied choir and haunting soprano solo, Stabat Mater is the reflective centrepiece of Passion Music, a large-scale work for Eastertide which premiered at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 2018. Structured around different points of the Passion story, Passion Music is a continuation of the jazz and choral music fusion so successfully blended by Will in his iconic Mass in Blue. The 2019 recording of Passion Music and Jazz Missa Brevis with St Martin’s Voices and the Will Todd Ensemble is available on the Signum Classics label.

The Jazz Missa Brevis was commissioned by David Price for Portsmouth Cathedral with funds from The Groves Legacy. It gives new life to the sung Latin Mass texts in an accessible, short setting which embraces a range of jazz styles, from upbeat Latin groove to soulful ballad. The Kyrie is a swinging jazz waltz which establishes the uplifting variety of the Mass setting. In writing the Jazz Missa Brevis, Will aimed to create “simple and lasting music that will work equally well in liturgy or in concert.” He describes his composition process: “Drawing on my own piano playing style, all of the movements began life as extended improvisations which I then honed and developed into the completed movements. I hope this ensures that there is a genuine jazz ‘heart’ to each of the sections.”

Originally commissioned by Andrew Earis for a BBC broadcast from St Martin’s in 2010, Come Down O Love Divine is an arrangement of the hymn Down Ampney by Ralph Vaughan Williams. In this setting, Vaughan Williams’ classic melody is reinvigorated with fresh harmonic moves, gradually adding vocal harmony through the verses, with a short descant section in the final verse. The piece is now published by Boosey & Hawkes in a collection of Three Jazz Hymns.

Also commissioned for St Martin’s, Will’s arrangement of Amazing Grace has been sung extensively worldwide. The comforting spirit and heartfelt poignancy of this hymn found special resonance in 2018, when Will “rescored it for symphony orchestra as part of a memorial concert on the anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster with Opera Holland Park, who lost a company member in the fire”.

Like A Rainbow Shining is a hopeful musical response to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Back in April 2020, Will wrote about the story behind this piece: "A friend of mine asked recently if I could write a ‘song of hope’. It’s definitely challenging right now in the middle of 2020 not to feel disconnected, anxious and concerned about the future. Taking inspiration from the trend of painting rainbows and putting them in windows as a sign of a hopeful future, Like a Rainbow Shining is a song for singers everywhere to enjoy and perform. I’m grateful to singers from all over the world who helped make the first virtual choir version of this song… Wishing singers, musicians and music directors world-wide all the best and with hope for the future."

The choral suite When Music Sounds was a celebratory commission for the Mrs Sunderland Music Festival in conjunction with Huddersfield Choral Society, who performed its premiere in 2019. The suite is made up of three movements for choir and jazz quartet and includes a setting of When Music Sounds by Walter de la Mare alongside two additional texts by Will. Hey Music is the vibrant third movement which concludes the suite, making it a glorious finale for tonight’s programme.

TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS

O Sun and MoonWe are your childrenAnd I will travel with you all my earthly days.Universe of Light give us Life.O Moon and SunWe are your children.

Will Todd (b.1970)

I love you, I can say nothing more simple, nothing more deep. I offer you my heart as a pillow for your head, and when you tire, for your bed. My Love, I offer all of me, all of me, my Love.

Nils Peterson (b.1933) from a poem by the Greek female poet Myrtiotissa

A Kiss I kissed a red lip and my own lip turned red, Wiped my lip upon my sleeve and my sleeve turned red. Washed my shirt in the river and the river turned red, and the edge of the shore, and red out even to the middle of the sea. An eagle flew down to drink water and his wings turned red. He flew up and lo! half of the sun red, and the whole of the moon red, I kissed a red lip.

Nils Peterson (b.1933)from an anonymous Greek lyric

I sing because you loved me once. I sing when the sun shines, when it rains and when it snows. Because you held me in your arms one night, I am as beautiful as the wide-open lily. Because you looked at me once, your soul was in your look. I fix my hair and wear perfumeBecause you admired me walking by. I saw my slender shadow move

Because you loved me once. I was born into this world because you loved me. Now you are gone. Because you loved me once I too can sweetly die.

Nils Peterson (b.1933)from a poem by Greek poet Maria Polydouri (1902-1930)

Just as I am, Thy love unknownHas broken every barrier down;Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, though tossed aboutWith many a conflict, many a doubt;Fightings within, and fears without,O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;Sight, riches, healing of the mind;Yes, all I need, in Thee to find,O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Charlotte Elliott (1789-1871)

Stabat mater dolorosa At the Cross her station keeping,juxta Crucem lacrimosa, stood the mournful Mother weeping,dum pendebat Filius. close to her Son to the last.

O quam tristis et afflicta O how sad and sore distressedfuit illa benedicta, was that Mother, highly blest,mater Unigeniti! of the sole-begotten One.

Quis non posset contristari Can the human heart refrainChristi Matrem contemplari from partaking in her pain,dolentem cum Filio? in that Mother's pain untold?

Kyrie eleison Lord have mercyChriste eleison Christ have mercyKyrie eleison Lord have mercy

Come down, O love divine, seek Thou this soul of mine,And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing.O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.O let it freely burn, til earthly passions turnTo dust and ashes in its heat consuming;And let Thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity mine outward vesture be,And lowliness become mine inner clothing;True lowliness of heart, which takes the humbler part,And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,Shall far outpass the power of human telling;For none can guess its grace, till he become the placeWherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.

Discendi, amor santo Bianco da Siena (fl.1367-1434) Adapted by Richard F Littledale (1833-1890)

Amazing grace! How sweet the soundThat saved a wretch like me!I once was lost, but now am found;Was blind, but now I see.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,I have already come;’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,His Word my hope secures;He will my Shield and Portion be,As long as life endures.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,The sun forbear to shine;But God, who called me here below,Will be forever mine.

John Newton (1725-1807)

Paint me a rainbow,and hang it at your window,and always remember,together we are stronger,together we are kinder,together we have colours.

Friend to a strangerremembering our neighbourand then like a rainbowtogether we are shining,shining, shining, shiningLike a rainbow we will shine.

Though I can’t touch youI long to see your face again.My heart is in readinessto clothe you in my love,and then like a rainbowtogether we are shining.We are shining.Together we are shining.

Will Todd (b.1970)

Hey music, what you doing to me?Hey music, what you doing to me?I was lost but now you’re setting me freeHey music, what you doing to me?

Will Todd (b.1970)

PERFORMERS

Will Todd EnsembleSt Martin's VoicesWill Todd Director

Will Todd Ensemble

PianoJohn Turville

PercussionJim Fleeman

BassGareth Huw Davies

SaxophonePaul Jones

St Martin's Voices

SopranoHilary Cronin

Isabella GibberRachel Haworth

Victoria Meteyard Daisy Walford

AltoJess Haig

Helen Stanley Sophie Timms

TenorRobert Folkes Jack Granby Will Wright

BassGeorge Cook

Nathan Harrison Ben Tomlin

This exciting and flexible group, which ranges in size from jazz trio to big band, has evolved from the highly successful Will Todd Trio formed in 1999. The Will Todd Ensemble first worked together as part of a worldwide training programme for Unilever in which improvisation was used to underpin some of the training themes. Since then the Ensemble has performed and broadcast extensively including live broadcasts on BBC Radio, appearances in London (Barbican Centre, Pizza Express Soho, St Martin-in-the-Fields), at festivals throughout the UK and concerts in many of the UK’s most beautiful cathedrals including Exeter, Durham, Chichester, Clifton, Sheffield, Guildford and Wells. Drummer Jim Fleeman (currently performing the hit show Matilda on the West End) and Bass player Gareth Huw Davies form the rhythm section, and the Ensemble is sometimes as large as 14 including a full brass line-up.

The ensemble can be tailored to suit any event or venue and performs extensively in both the jazz and contemporary classical worlds. Recent performances have included an appearance in the Jazz in the Crypt series at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho and Guildford Spring Music Festival. The ensemble has given hundreds of renditions of Will Todd’s Mass in Blue with choirs and choral societies around the UK.

The Will Todd Ensemble is also familiar with workshop environments and has worked in schools, universities, and business contexts, bringing the joy, fun, technique and psychology of music and improvisation to a varied cross section of audiences.

CD recordings include:Mass in Blue - with Vasari Singers (Signum Classics)The Glittering Plain - with saxophonist Lara James (Signum Classics)Te Deum - with Vivace Chorus (Tyalgum label)Sounds of Light - (Tyalgum label)Evensong in Blue - with St Martin’s Voices (St Martin-in-the-Fields label)Sounds of Freedom - (Tyalgum label)Footprints - with Wellensian Consort and NYJO (Tyalgum label)Christmas in Blue - with St Martin’s Voices (St Martin-in-the-Fields label)

For more information see www.willtodd.co.uk

Will Todd taught himself the piano from an early age and grew up in County Durham, North East England where his grandfather was a coal miner and his parents were teachers. His love of improvising has been the central force in a wide ranging career of composing and playing.

His love of choral music is reflected in a large output including masses, anthems and larger sacred concert works including Mass in Blue, which has been performed hundreds of times around the world since its 2003 premiere. His carol My Lord Has Come has become a worldwide favorite since it was included in Oxford University Press’s Carols for Choirs Five in 2012.

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Will has worked with many of the UK’s leading music companies including Welsh National Opera, Opera North, The Halle Orchestra, Opera Holland Park, The Sixteen, The BBC Singers and the BBC Concert Orchestra, He has had a fruitful collaboration with the award-winning chamber choir Tenebrae with whom he has made the two highly acclaimed albums The Call of Wisdom and Lux et Veritas; the latter was voted one of the top 20 albums of 2014 by Classic FM.

Will Todd also has an impressive list of theatre works including The Screams of Kitty Genovese, produced most recently by Tête à Tête Opera in London and Edinburgh, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Opera Holland Park, Migrations for Welsh National Opera and The Blackened Man, a prizewinner in the International Verdi Opera Competition.

He has been honoured to work with a wide range of choirs in Europe, the US and worldwide. He strongly believes in music making for all, and his personal motto when directing choirs is ‘find the passion’. Outside music his interests include supporting the environmental movement in any way he can, and he is planning to phase out his use of flying during the next few years. He lives with his family near London.

Will frequently performs as a jazz pianist, leading the Will Todd Ensemble, and is in high demand as a workshop leader and conductor of his own music. His music is published by Oxford University Press, Boosey and Hawkes and Tyalgum Press.

John Turville has developed a reputation as ‘one of the leading jazz pianists of his generation’ (Ian Mann). After studies at Caius College, Cambridge (where he was a choral scholar) and the Guildhall, he quickly established himself as a performer on the European jazz scene. John has recorded five albums as a leader, which have won multiple awards including ‘Best Album’ in the Parliamentary Awards and the PRS Promoter’s Choice Award and has recorded as a sideman on over 30 albums to date. John also won the ‘best instrumentalist’ award in the inaugural London Jazz Awards.

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Besides performing, John is also an experienced composer, recently receiving commissions from the tango dancer Richard Manuel, and from the RBC for a new arrangement of Schumann’s Liederkreis. John previously arranged the complete Debussy Preludes for Jazz Ensemble and multiple pianos at Uppingham School. He is also the principal jazz piano tutor at Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Holloway, the Purcell and Yehudi Menuhin Schools. John has led workshops and taught at a number of international summer schools, including ‘Concertato’ (Capri), the Saarwellingen International Jazz Academy, the Piano Week festival and the Dartington International Summer School, and is regularly on the audition panel for Help Musicians UK and Trinity Laban.

Jim Fleeman studied Jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has since led a varied and extensive career, working with artists such as Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Mark Eitzel, Kenny Wheeler, Omar, Damon Albarn, Sir Willard White, Mike Figgis and the Halle Orchestra. He has played for series on BBC, ITV and Sky Television, in addition to numerous TV and radio broadcasts, and has worked on theatre productions including Damon Albarn’s Monkey: Journey to the West and the RSC’s multi award-winning Matilda the Musical, where he is still to be found most nights.

Jim has been working regularly with Will Todd since 1999, performing around the world and appearing on many recordings including the recent Passion Music.

Gareth Huw Davies is a London based double and electric bass player. His work includes varied sessions, TV, West End theatre, jazz, big band, and classical crossover. He has performed all over the world in concert halls, theatres and jazz venues, collaborating with and recording for a wide range of musicians including Graham Coxon, Sir Willard White, the Will Todd Trio, Simple Minds, Chrissie Hind, Echo and the Bunnymen, Charlie Dore, the Tootsie Rollers, Miel de Botton and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and on Later with Jools Holland, and he is the bassist for the long running Welsh live music TV show Noson Lawen. Recent long term commitments include several UK and European tours with Mark Eitzel (American Music Club) and projects with Richard Durrant. He also plays cello and keyboards.Gareth also works professionally as a recording engineer and producer, most frequently with composer Will Todd, and as a music theatre keyboard programmer, for the RSC, ATG and Bill Kenwright, both in the West End and around the country. Recently he also has been undertaking sound design and operation, in particular for a variety of concerts and gigs, and for student musicals at Westminster School, Sherborne School, and Wellington School.

He is Director of CSSM Summer School of Music (at Uppingham School), and does occasional corporate, INSET and workshop education for the Wigmore Hall and other organisations

Paul Jones studied at Leeds College of Music and The Guildhall School of Music with Stan Sulzmann and Jean Toussaint. For over 20 years Paul has enjoyed a varied career across stage, screen and radio. He has appeared with the City of Birmingham Symphony, Liverpool Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Big Band, John Wilson Orchestra, The Pasedena Roof Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights include performing the solos from the films Taxi Driver and Cinema Paradiso at the Royal Albert

Hall with the RPO. Paul spent many a summer in Europe touring with the Latin jazz group ‘The Brasshoppers’ and back in the UK he appeared on TV with the band for the Parkinson show and Strictly Come Dancing.

Paul has spent the last three years playing in the hit West End show Motown the Musical and prior to that Memphis The Musical. Other West End performances include: The Jersey Boys’, Matilda, Dirty Dancing, Singing in the Rain, Legally Blonde and The Bodyguard. Paul is excited to be working with the Will Todd Ensemble again, having previously performed Todd’s Mass in Blue at St Martin-in-the-Fields, he played in the live broadcast of Jazz Missa Brevis for the BBC Pentecost Service 2018 and is featured on the album Passion Music. Paul is passionate about encouraging the next generation of musicians and currently teaches saxophone, flute, clarinet and piano across three secondary schools belonging to ‘The Valley Invicta Academy Trust’ in Maidstone.

St Martin’s Voices is one of London’s finest and most flexible vocal ensembles. As the flagship professional choral ensemble of St Martin-in-the-Fields, they sing for concerts, broadcasts and special services at St Martin’s and beyond. Recent years have seen tours to the USA and South Africa and performances alongside the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, London Mozart Players, Southbank Sinfonia and Will Todd Ensemble. Their concert repertoire ranges from Bach Mass in B minor to Brahms Requiem, Purcell Dido and Aeneas to Parry Songs of Farewell.

At the heart of St Martin’s Voices performance schedule is Great Sacred Music, a hugely varied weekly exploration of our religious heritage in words and music. This is accompanied by regular podcast episodes, most recently as part of the series The Song and The Story with Rev Dr Sam Wells.

St Martin’s Voices feature frequently in BBC broadcasts including Radio 3 Choral Evensong, Radio 4 Sunday Worship and Daily Service. In addition, they have sung for a variety of televised events and services, along with performances at Lambeth Palace, the Houses of Parliament and Greenbelt Festival. St Martin’s Voices can also be heard on CD recordings, including two releases in collaboration with composer Will Todd, Christmas in Blue (2013) and Passion Music (2019).

In response to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, St Martin’s Voices have extended their digital recording projects, sharing regular online services and concerts, as well as featuring in the Church of England online worship resources that have attracted more than 40 million views across digital platforms.

Our thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund, for supporting the ReSound concert series at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

This concert was pre-recorded on Monday 29 March 2021 and edited together before broadcast. The performers and technical crew carefully adhere to all current government regulations for COVID-19.

ReSound is a brand new concert series from St Martin-in-the-Fields, aiming to put St Martin’s at the heart of music-making in the capital. The series is focused around an exciting range of online concerts, some of which can also be attended in-person.

The concerts are streamed through our online platform, StMartins.Digital, and are available to watch as many times as you like for 30-60 days. We also have the opportunity for you to be a part of the audience for some of our concert recordings. Explore our range of in-person and online events by visiting the links below.

Voices in the Crypt, available online until Wednesday 21 July

St Martin's Voices with Simon Russell BealeShall I compare thee to a Summer's dayLove bade me welcomeLong live fair Oriana

Paddington Bear's First Concert Available online until Wednesday 21 July

Rachel Podger: The Guardian AngelAvailable online until Wednesday 23 June

St Martin's Voices: Brahms Requiem

Available online until Thursday 24 June

Will Todd Ensemble and St Martin's Voices:Songs of LoveAvailable online from Saturday 28 May

The Wind in the WillowsAvailable online, from Monday 31 May

Art Deco Trio: Gershwinicity In-person only, Monday 31 May, 3.00pm

Benson Wilson and James BaillieuAvailable online from Monday 7 June

Attend in-person, Saturday 5 June, 7.00pm

Academy of St Martin in the Fields: MiniaturesAvailable online from Tuesday 8 JuneAttend in-person, Thursday 3 June, 7.00pm

St Martin’s Voices: Brahms Liebeslieder WaltzesAvailable online from Tuesday 15 June,

Attend in-person, Friday 11 June, 7.00pm

Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Concert: Duets, Trios and QuartetsIn-person only, Saturday 12 June, 12.30pm

Quartet for the End of Time: Melvyn Tan and Friends

Available online from Tuesday 22 JuneAttend in-person, Saturday 19 June, 7.00pm

St Martin’s Voices with Anna Lapwood: Upon your heart Available online from Wednesday 23 JuneAttend in-person, Monday 21 June, 7.00pm

Organ Recital: Rachel MahonAvailable online from Saturday 26 June

Organ Recital: Ben GiddensAvailable online from Saturday 26 June

The Hermes Experiment Available online from Monday 28 JuneAttend in-person, Friday 25 June, 7.00pm

Vivaldi and the Osperia del Pieta Available online from Tuesday 29 June

Attend in-person, Saturday 26 June, 7.00pm

I Fagiolini: The ache, the bite and the banger Available online from Wednesday 30 JuneAttend in-person, Thursday 24 June, 7.00pm

As the impact of COVID-19 continues, we need people like you to keep supporting us and helping the musicians we work with.

To help us keep playing on, please consider making a donation today: www.smitf.org/donate

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St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 4JJ

Free, non-ticketed events

The Song and The Story, in-person only, Sundays, 3.30pm

With thee there is light, Sunday 30 MayChoral Miniatures, Sunday 6 JuneInnocence and Experience, Sunday 13 JuneThe Passing of the Year, Sunday 20 JuneIn youth is pleasure, Sunday 27 June

St Martin's Chorus: Music for joy and living

In-person only, Saturday 26 June, 12.30pm

Festival Evensong with the Choir of St Martin-in-the-FieldsIn-person, Sunday 27 June, 5.00pm, and live-streamed