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 Ulysses Arts releases the première recording of Phillip Cooke's Four Marian Antiphons on 31 March 2023, performed by the Caritas Chamber Choir directed by Benedict Preece. Four Marion Anthems 1. Ave Regina Caelorum 2. Salve Regina, Mater misericordiae 3. Alma Redemptoris Mater (pre-release on 10 February) 4. Regina Cœli (pre-release on 3 March)  Phillip Cooke Released in partnership with Platoon. Streaming and download links will be published here on release day.
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  Fr. Ivan Moody Fr. Ivan Moody was born in London in 1964. He studied music and theology at the Universities of London, Joensuu and York (where he took his doctorate). He studied composition with Brian Dennis, Sir John Tavener and William Brooks. He has worked with soloists and ensembles of world renown, such as the Hilliard Ensemble, Singer Pur, Trio Mediaeval, the Tallis Scholars, the English Chamber Choir, Cappella Romana, New York Polyphony, the Regensburger Domspatz, Singcircle, Lumen Valo, Tapestry, Cappella Nova, Ars Nova Copenhagen, the Taverner Consort, Fretwork, the Raschèr Quartet, Raphael Wallfisch, Suzie Leblanc, Artur Pizarro and Paul Barnes. Over the years he has written a series of substantial choral and choral-instrumental works, including Passion and Resurrection (1992), Revelation (1995), Akathistos Hymn (1998), The Dormition of the Virgin (2003), Passione Popolare (2005), Ossetian Requiem (2005), Moons and Suns (2008), Stabat Mater (2008), Qohelet (2013) and Stephans-Weihnacht (2019). Instrumental music includes a series of concertante works for viola, cello, recorder, double bass, piano, harp, tuba, bass clarinet and marimba, and many works for chamber ensembles (notably the piano quartet Nocturne of Light, from 2009) and solo instruments. Ivan Moody is also a conductor and musicologist; his book Modernism and Orthodox Spirituality in Contemporary Music was published in 2014. He is a Researcher at CESEM—Universidade Nova, Lisbon, and a priest of the Orthodox Church.  
Stream on Apple Music or download in iTunes - click above
Tota pulchra es is a 1,600 year old Roman Catholic prayer, meaning 'You are completely beautiful', referring to the Virgin Mary. It glorifies her immaculate conception, and takes its text from the Bible's Book of Judith and Song of Songs.
It has inspired great composers for centuries, from Guillaume du Fay and Heinrich Isaac in the late Middle Ages, through Schumann, Bruckner, Pablo Casals, Duruflé and Gorczycki to contemporaries such as Sir James MacMillan and Ola Gjeilo: Neil Wright's new settting revels in the opportunity for musical beauty and spiritual yearning. Tota pulchra es is Wright's debut commission and recording with Caritas Chamber Choir. Studying the Royal Northern College of Music, as an organist, composer and improviser, he has performed throughout the UK (including Cadogan Hall; Westminster Central Hall) and in Germany (Dresden Cathedral, Stuttgart-Schondorf Orgelnacht, Friedenskirche Potsdam, Maria Laach Abbey), USA (Carmel Valley California), Italy (Tagliacozzo Festival, Cremona Cathedral), Finland (Åland Orgel Festival) and France (Vannes Cathedral, Eglise de La Trinité Paris).
Caritas Chamber Choir, based in Canterbury, UK, is one of the world's leading commissioners of contemporary choral music, performing frequently around the UK and Europe, directed by Benedict Preece, a Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar.
Streaming and download links:
Released in partnership with Platoon.
John Kelley's When You are Old is an atmospheric setting of W.B. Yeats’ famous poem: its retrospective nature is a perfect work to precede the New Year, performed by the Caritas Chamber Choir conducted by Benedict Preece.
American composer John Kelley studied at Yale University and is a lay clerk at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. His setting of When You are Old won the 1997 National Award for Schirmer’s Young American Choral Competition; it is performed annually by Redhot & Blue, Yale University’s world-renowned mixed a capella ensemble.
Caritas Chamber Choir
Links to listen or download on digital service providers will be posted here on 30 December.
Ulysses Arts releases Canterbury-based Caritas Chamber Choir's first Christmas album, directed by Benedict Preece, on 25 November 2022. Christmas with Caritas features traditional carols in new arrangements with première recordings of contemporary works by Phillip Cooke, Sarah Cattley, Graham Patterson, Anthony Esland, Eric Choate, Stewart Duncan and Simon Beattie. Click to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music 
Download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music: click above
Christmas with Caritas is preceeded by two singles from the album:
Phillip Cooke, I Sing of a Maiden - 28 October Sarah Cattley, What Child is this? - 11 November
Album Details Tradition (arr. Benedict Preece), O Little Town of Bethlehem Lyricist: Phillips Brooks Sarah Cattley, What Child is this? Lyricist: William Chatterton Dix Graham Patterson, Sweet was the Song Lyricist: Anonymous/Graham Patterson Traditional (arr. Benedict Preece), Ding Dong Merrily on High Lyricist: George Ratcliffe Woodward Sarah Cattley, The Robin Carol Lyricist: Sarah Cattley/Traditional Phillip Cooke, I Sing of a Maiden Soloists: Christina Bosanko, Christina Astin, Peter Ellis, Graham Titus Lyricist: Anonymous Phillip Cooke, Susanni Soloists: Catherine Futcher, Bob McKay Lyricist: Traditional Franz Gruber (arr. Phillip Cooke), Silent Night Lyricist: Joseph Mohr, John F. Young Sarah Cattley/Michael Praetorius, A Spotless Rose Soloist: Peter Ellis Lyricist: Traditional, Catherine Winkworth Graham Patterson, Balulalow Lyricist: Wedderburn brothers Anthony Esland, The Bee Carol Lyricist: Carol Ann Duffy Traditional (arr. Eric Choate), Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella Lyricist: Anonymous Stewart Duncan, There is no Rose Lyricist: Anonymous Lewis Redner (arr. David Conte), O Little Town of Bethlehem Soloist: Sally-Anne Hanson Lyricist: Phillips Brooks Simon Beattie, Advent Calendar Lyricist: Rowan Williams
The Caritas Chamber Choir and Benedict Preece's recording of traditional Welsh song The Ash Grove releases on all major digital service providers on 26 August 2022, followed by Eric Choate, Beloved, Let us Love, on 16 September, Mikael Carlsson, Ubi Caritas on 14 October, Phillip Cooke, I Sing of A Maiden on 28 October, and Sarah Cattley, What Child is this? on 11 November. These singles are a prelude to Caritas' Christmas album, released on 25 November 2022.
Download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music: click above
Releasing on 2 September 2022 Emma Johnson, Songs of Celebration Nimbus Alliance NI6431 Emma Johnson, clarinet, John Lenehan, piano Gloucester Cathedral Choir, directed by Adrian Partington The Pied Piper, by Jonathan Dove, for Narrator, Clarinet, Recorders, Children’s Voices and Piano: 'There are many theories about the meaning of this story: it might relate to the plague, to a natural disaster, emigration, or a dancing mania. The piper might be a shaman, a recruiting agent, or Death. Robert Browning’s popular 1842 poem tells the mediaeval tale in lively rhyme and in 2009, Emma Johnson approached me with an enticing idea: she would become the Pied Piper, using her clarinet as the pipe, could I set Browning’s poem to music? I suggested that it could be even more exciting if she were to narrate the poem herself if I could write gaps into the clarinet part, allowing her just enough time to speak.' Jonathan Dove 'In recent times girls have been invited to sing in church and cathedral choirs. It was with this in mind that I considered writing a Christmas song for clarinet and higher voices setting one of my favourite medieval poems: the 15th century I Sing of a Maiden that is Makeless. The poem tells of the miracle of the divine birth and always brings to mind music I heard once in a Coptic Christian church in Cairo. I have retained their original Middle Eastern flavour, giving us a glimpse of how the earliest church music might have sounded. Towards the end of the song, clarinet and voices climb higher and higher to express the poet’s joy at the birth of Christ. I became so fascinated with composing for clarinet and upper voices that I found myself writing three more songs, all celebrating the Christmas story, grouped under the title, Songs of Celebration. It was very gratifying to see the children in Gloucester cathedral choir singing with gusto, relishing its beat boxing and glissandi which felt at once incongruously modern and yet perfectly apposite in the cathedral surroundings. Carol of the Bells takes nuggets of the famous Ukrainian Carol by Mykola Leontovich and transforms them into a peal of bells ringing. It demands virtuoso singing from the choir and I am in awe at the panache with which these young singers perform it. Coventry Carol is from the mystery play traditionally performed in Coventry, England, in the 16th century (author unknown). Herod has ordered the slaughter of all male children under the age of two years old and the carol is a lullaby sung by their mothers. This has to be the most disturbing story in the Bible. In my setting the clarinet part is intended to evoke Rachel weeping for her children "and refusing to be comforted because they are no more". Silent Night regularly tops charts of best loved carols and was written in 1818 by the Austrian musician Franz Xaver Gruber with lyrics by Joseph Mohr. To create an atmosphere of calm, I invited the children to sing the carol softly, like a lullaby, accompanied by rocking, running notes from the clarinet which could represent a cradle swinging to and fro. Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring from 1723 completes this album’s celebration of the Christmas story. The English translation is by Robert Bridges but the German lyrics, Jesus bleibet meine Freude (Jesus remains my joy) perhaps give more of the sense of sheer happiness in his faith expressed by Bach in this chorale, with its continuous bouncing triplets lapping around a noble theme.' Emma Johnson 
Electronic press kit available for review use. Pre-release single from The Pied Piper:
Pied Piper Recorders
Lyrita Records releases Richard Blackford's Mirror of Perfection, with soprano Elizabeth Watts, baritone Roderick Williams, the IKON Singers and Britten Sinfonia, and Vision of A Garden, with baritone Stephen Gadd, The Bach Choir and the strings of the Philharmonia Orchestra, both conducted by David Hill, on 6 May 2022 (SRCD.406 Dolby Atmos recording). This is the first recording of Vision of a Garden, and the second of Mirror of Perfection.
Click above to download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music
Vision of a Garden was first performed by The Bach Choir, baritone Gareth Brnmor John and Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by David Hill, on 24 October 2021 at London's Royal Festival Hall, and recorded for Lyrita at St Augustine's Church, Kilburn. The work is based on Bach Choir member Professor Peter Johnstone's experience of serious illness with COVID-19.
Professor Johnson was the first COVID patient admitted to Cambridge's Addenbrokes Hospital's Neurosciences and Trauma Critical Care Unit. He remained in hospital, often unconscious, for 75 days, yet recovered and was able to sing in work's first performance. During his time in hospital, the nurses caring for Professor Johnson left messages of support in a series of 'ICU diaries': he describes these as 'the most heart-warming documents I’ve ever read.'
'I have a duty to tell the world what I went through':
how COVID-fuelled visions inspired a new choral work. Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph
'Eine ausdrucksstarke Interpretation, die ihren Eindruck auf den Hörer nicht verfehlt.'
Uwe Krusch, Pizzicato
Richard Blackford comments about re-recording Mirror of Perfection: 
Richard Blackford comments on Lyrita's new version of Mirror of Perfection:
'I was delighted when Lyrita agreed to make a new recording of Mirror Of Perfection. Since conducting it myself for Sony Classical in 1997 with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Bournemouth Sinfonietta I have heard it performed dozens of times around the world. Hearing different conductors’ interpretations, with both symphonic and chamber, amateur and professional choirs, I was intrigued by the prospect of Lyrita making a recording that was completely unlike the earlier one. Encouraged by David Hill, who had already conducted and recorded many of my choral works, I decided that the new recording would be different by choosing a 24-voice professional chorus, the superb Ikon singers. I heard the contrapuntal writing with a new transparency, luminosity and beauty. Whereas in the earlier recording the soloists had to be overdubbed because of scheduling issues, Roderick Williams and Elizabeth Watts were recorded live with the chorus and orchestra, as always intended. The resulting ensemble has a new vibrancy and immediacy - one really can imagine that Williams is St Francis of Assisi, especially in his charming rendition of Canticle of The Birds. Elizabeth Watts brought a heightened sense of drama with her thrilling high notes in Movements IV and VI, when she soars effortlessly over the chorus and orchestra. The stormy third movement In foco l’amore mi mise is unlike anything I had heard previously: tenors and basses articulate their rapid quaver passages with exemplary diction and clarity. In many respects, however, the Lyrita recording is more intimate: the final movement's hushed “Beati quelli che sosterrano in pace” has a stillness and sense of peace that I had never experienced before. In the new recording I had a chance to slightly re-balance the orchestral score, especially the postlude. Under David Hill, the Britten Sinfonia’s playing is breathtakingly beautiful, especially the interludes in the fifth and seventh movements. The exposed, closing three-horn coda was perfectly tuned and balanced. Hill’s choices of tempo are often a little brisker than those I chose in 1997, and the piece is better for it. The new Lyrita recording's success is the sum of many parts of its brilliant team of musicians and technicians. Hearing the final Dolby Atmos mix in Andrew Walton’s studio was one of the most thrilling aural experiences of my life.'
Electronic press kit is available: for inquiries, click CONTACT US below. NIMBUS RECORDS AND ULYSSES ARTS ANNOUCE PRESS AND COMMUNICATIONS PARTNERSHIP FROM MARCH 20224/3/2022
Ulysses Arts will provide electronic press kits for Nimbus and Lyrita recordings, alongside press releases on our website. 
Stream on Apple Music or download with booklet from iTunes - click above
CRD Records are delighted to announce the release of Resurrexi! Easter in Vienna with Mozart and the Haydn Brothers on 1 April 2022. Recorded with the The Choir of Keble College Oxford and Instruments of Time & Truth, the album is conducted by Paul Brough. Resurrexi! is CRD’s third album with Keble, following Ceremonial Oxford (2017) and Ave Rex Angelorum (2020).
Resurrexi!, recorded in 2021 in the Victorian splendour of Keble College Chapel, celebrates Easter in music – a full mass sequence based around Mozart’s Spaurmesse K. 258, interspersed with plainchant and a treasury of Viennese classical sacred music by Joseph and Michael Haydn. The result offers an imaginary recreation of an opulent service that might have been heard at Vienna’s Stephansdom, or at the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg’s court. Ressurexi!’s soloists are Emily Dickens, soprano, Rebekah Jones, mezzo-soprano, Philippe Durrant, tenor and Graham Kirk, baritone and cantor.
‘Resurrexi! is an enticing opportunity to hear some rarely played music in eager and engaging performances. ... An immensely enjoyable recording.' David Threasher, Gramophone Magazine 'This celebration of Easter ... amply succeeds in giving both spiritual and musical satisfaction.'Brian Robins, Early Music Review 'So sweetly done that you’re immediately tempted to hit the replay button.' Graham Rickson: The Arts Desk - April 2022 
David Truslove, Opera Today: August 2022 - click above for review link
SINGLE PRE-RELEASE FROM RESURREXI
MOZART, REGINA COELI
Jazz pianist Jason Rebello and English vocal ensemble Opus Anglicanum join forces on their album Adorna, released on 28 January 2022 (UA210140) on Apple Music, Spotify, HDtracks, Deezer, Amazon Music, Qobuz, TIDAL, YouTube and all main digital services, and on CD. The track bearing the album's title name was pre-released as a single on 31 December 2021.
Jason Rebello and Opus Anglicanum started their professional career recording and performing in the late 1980s. Opus Anglicanum's world – which embraces a cappella Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant, folksong, music hall, contemporary classical vocal commissions and readings from literature and poetry, in fact almost everything but jazz - remained totally different from Jason's. Their home has remained great cathedrals, abbeys, stately homes, or tiny mediaeval parish churches. Then their director Roland Robertson booked Jason to compose major instrumental and choral work, and so came to understand the spiritual richness and artistic breadth of Jason's musicianship.
It was obviously immediately that Jason and Opus Anglicanum shared a common goal: to explore together a mysterious, austere and magical zone, following the ancient paths of ritual and procession, in modes ancient and modern, the piano illuminating and complementing the voices, and exploiting the space. Together, with barless scores of square mediaeval notes, and tracts of Latin, they began to experiment. This developed into a concert programme built on chants for the winter feast of Candlemas, first performed in Wells Cathedral. Standing around the nave, empty but for Jason at the Steinway, with five singers in fading January light, the content and setting 'clicked' perfectly. The result is 'Adorna', now enhanced by two original new compositions by Jason, and recorded in live performance.
LIVE PERFORMANCES
WELLS CATHEDRAL: SATURDAY 22 JANUARY 2022 ST MARTIN'S-IN-THE-FIELDS, LONDON: THURSDAY 3 FEBRUARY The St Martin's-in-the-Fields concert is followed by a Crypt Late jazz performance by Jason Rebello and His Trio - Troy Miller, drums and Orlando Le Fleming, bass. THAXTED FESTIVAL, ESSEX: 27 JUNE 2022, 7.30PM LISTEN TO ADORNA
PRESS
London Jazz News - interview London Jazz News - concert review Jazz Journal, April 2022 (Matthew Wright) Jazziz Magazine Classical Music Daily Jazzwise - April 2022 issue ADORNA - Pre-Release Single links:
CARITAS CHAMBER CHOIR AND BENEDICT PREECE RELEASE CROSSING THE BAR - MUSIC FOR REFLECTION AND HOPE20/9/2021
Released on 19 November 2021:
Download on iTunes or stream on Apple Music - click above
Ulysses Arts released two singles from Crossing the Bar - Music for Reflection and Hope, performed by the Caritas Chamber Choir directed by Benedict Preece. The first single, O Nata Lux by Philip Stopford, releases on 1 October, followed by Crossing the Bar, by Benedict Preece, on 22 October, on Apple Music/iTunes, Spotify, Qobuz, HDtracks and all other major digital service providers. O Nata Lux is a world première recording from Philip Stopford, one of the most celebrated contemporary choral composers. It is conducted by Benedict Preece, who featured on Ulysses Arts' 2020 J.S. Bach horn and organ album with Anneke Scott. This calm but powerful work takes us from darkness to light, a theme of Advent, when this piece would normally be sung. It has musical elements that hark back to the familiar version of the same text by Thomas Tallis. Benedict Preece writes about his motet Crossing the Bar: 'Written in 2016 as a gift to Gothenburg's HagaMotettkör for collaboration with Caritas Chamber Choir, I chose to create deliberately simple hymnlike music to allow this most powerful poem to remain the listener's focus. The 'aw' section, sung by lower voices, is intended to represent the sea. The work builds to an almighty climax: “I hope to see my pilot face to face” before finishing with an echo of the “sea”, this time as a hum, which depicts crossing the bar from this life to what comes next.'
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