Watch Online: Following the Footsteps of Saints

Following the Footsteps of Saints:

When the stars wheel round and the tide rolls in​

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An hour-long programme of words and music reflecting on St Aidan, the sea and pilgrimage. The performance features poems written and read by Jay Hulme from his latest book The Vanishing Song (Canterbury Press, 2023) alongside choral works by Bob Chilcott, Eleanor Daley, John Rutter and others sung as a musical reflection on the poems, performed by St Martin's Voices. It also includes première of St Aidan's Prayer written and introduced by composer-in-residence Lucy Walker.​

This concert will be available to watch from Monday 4th September at 7.30pm until 31st October 2024. You will be sent a link to watch the concert shortly before Monday 4th September.

Programme

The isle is full of noises – Bob Chilcott

Poem: Waking the Dead

Even such is time – Bob Chilcott

Poem: Insula Sacra

Locus iste – Tarik O’Regan

Poem: Nobody asked the Island if she wanted to be Holy

Round me falls the night – Annabel Rooney

Poem: An Almost Pilgrimage

Open thou mine eyes – John Rutter

Poem: Somewhere South of Holy Island

Never weather-beaten sail – Thomas Campion

Poem: Inner Farne — March, 68

St Aidan’s Prayer – Lucy Walker [new commission]

Poem: Do not Sing, but Reply

How can I keep from singing? – Robert Lowry arr. Sarah Quartel

Poem: A New Commandment

Upon your heart – Eleanor Daley

Crossing the bar – Rani Arbo

St Martin’s Voices is one of the UK’s most versatile, professional vocal ensembles. They sing for concerts, broadcasts and special services at their base in London’s iconic St Martin-in-the-Fields and beyond, and regularly perform alongside the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, London Mozart Players and Piatti Quartet. In response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, St Martin’s Voices extended their digital recording projects, and was proud to feature in performances used by the Church of England’s online worship resources that have attracted more than 4 million downloads. They have toured to the USA and South Africa as well as undertaking extensive tours across the UK. The choir regularly features in broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and Classic FM. In 2023 they released their first album with Resonus Classics, A Winter Breviary, to critical acclaim.

Jay Hulme is an award winning transgender poet, speaker and theologian. Alongside his writing, and his duties as Churchwarden at an 1100+ year old church, he teaches poetry in schools, offers poetry writing workshops, performs sensitivity reads, gives lectures and keynote speeches, and preaches regularly in churches and cathedrals across the country, and occasionally worldwide. He’s also known for his ability to gain access to some of the hidden (and scarily high up) parts of churches and cathedrals, and his willingness to share those adventures with the world through photography.

With a special interest in queer rights and theology, Jay’s work engages particularly with ideas of faith, place, and identity, with many of his poetry books for adults being published by one the the UK’s foremost Christian publishers.

With books available for children, teens, and adults, Jay is a versatile writer, with the ability to engage a broad range of people with his work, both on the page and off, through entertaining and thought provoking talks, performances, lectures, sermons, and regular media appearances.

Lucy Walker (b.1998) is quickly establishing her place as one of Britain’s foremost emerging compositional voices. Originally from the North-East of England, Lucy is now based in Cambridge, where she completed her postgraduate studies in 2021. Recognised as one of Classic FM’s Rising Stars in 2024, Lucy is gaining repute for her vibrant choral writing, described by Bob Chilcott as ‘full of light, and beautifully crafted’.

In 2022, Lucy was appointed Composer-in-Residence with St Martin’s Voices, the flagship professional vocal consort based at St-Martin-in-the-Fields, and, alongside, has won numerous high-profile commissions, including writing for the BBC Singers, VOCES8, The Sixteen, various UK Cathedral Choirs, and Anna Lapwood and the Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Lucy’s works have been frequently broadcast on national radio, featured on commercial recordings, and are gaining popularity in performance across Europe and the US.

Lucy also works as a music educator, teaching musical analysis, theory and harmony to undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge. Lucy is passionate about making music, especially choral music, accessible and inclusive, and her compositions and teaching work aim to reflect this mission.