Last week we kicked off a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to professionally record an album of brand new choral music written by new and as yet unrecorded composers. This project is not about us as a choir. Our project is about giving new and emerging choral composers a chance to shine.
So why are we doing it if we're not making a profit?
Composers rely on having their work performed in order to receive further commissions, write new music and maintain their livelihood. But the only way for people to know about their music is to hear it. However, the reality for most new and emerging composers is that the cost of having a whole disc professionally recorded is often completely prohibitive, and so getting the first step on the ladder of becoming an established composer is nigh on impossible.
This is why we came up with the idea of Lumen de Lumine, an album that is devoted to supporting new composers, with a mix of sacred and spiritual choral music, written by emerging and unrecorded composers. And we have brought together a group of composers from around the world including the UK, The USA, Canada and Australia, who will be writing new works specially commissioned for this album.
But what's in it for us? The same that's in it for all of us at choir place.
We love singing the classics: Howells, Stanford, Tallis. As we love new music too: Mealor, Whitacre, and Todd. But discovering new music is one of the great joys of being a choral director and singer - performing magical new works that are both a joy to sing but also increase our repertoire and bring new music to audiences. But while the costs remain so high to record music and get it on Spotify, Itunes and for people to hear and then chose to sing with their choir, this will never happen.
So this is why we believe in promoting and supporting new music because however you do it, everybody benefits.
To read more about our project, check out the video on our Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/877134903/lumen-de-lumine?ref=user_menu
