An interview with Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Kate Wakeling

To celebrate ten years of Southwell Music Festival, this year we have commissioned a new work from composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad and port Kate Wakeling. The new piece, With What Sudden Joy, will have its world premiere at this year’s Festival, alongside a performance of Mozart Requiem. The piece will also be available for choral groups and societies to perform, with other performances in the pipeline in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The piece sets five new poems and is scored for a string orchestra with a soprano soloist (Alison Rose) and chorus.

Buy tickets for the Tenth Anniversary Concert.

Interview by Dinah Wilcox.

Kate, have you collaborated with Cheryl before?

Yes, in 2021 we were commissioned by the Oxford International Song Festival and Oxford Botanic Garden to write a song cycle for Marcus Farnsworth to sing (with pianist Libby Burgess) called Everything Grows Extravagantly.

And how do you become a librettist?

I write poetry and this was my route into writing words specifically to be set to music by composers. I also have a music background; I studied music at university and went on to do a PhD in ethnomusicology. I don’t have anything to do with the music Cheryl writes, but I really enjoy writing for music.

Tell us more about this commision for Southwell Music Festival?

Kate: The original commission was for a piece that would pair with the Mozart Requiem. We were asked to create a piece that celebrates music and people coming together to make music.

[Kate worked with two groups of primary school children in Southwell and ran two workshops with adults in the community, exploring their personal reflections on what music meant to their lives].

Kate: The libretto is then created entirely from words and phrases taken from these different conversations – it’s a kind of mosaic.

And how does it fit with the Requiem?

Cheryl: Marcus (Farnsworth, Artistic Director of Southwell Music Festival) wanted something positive and joyful for the tenth anniversary. It’s a piece that can be paired with a second piece with similar orchestration. Legacy is a really important thing and the piece is intended for future performances. Marcus wanted something special for the anniversary and this included commissioning a piece. Similar voices and a slightly reduced orchestra. It’ll last for about 15 minutes, with five movements.

Cheryl, how did you become a composer?

Originally I wanted to be a cellist. I went to the Yehudi Menuhin School for ten years from the age of 8. As soon as I started playing I also began to compose – I wrote a piece for open strings as I hadn’t yet learnt how to use the finger board! I was painfully shy as a child and music was my way of communicating. When I was about 25 I won a competition that was worth a substantial amount of money in the States but to collect the prize I had to do a 90-minute lecture. It was a formative experience.

How does the process of composing work?

Cheryl: I sit at the piano and write on a sheet of paper.

So you don’t use a computer program?

Cheryl: Ten years ago I did all my composing like that; now I have a bigger computer screen so I can see the whole score – previously I could see only about a quarter – so I now write about 25% with the computer program. As technology advances I feel less and less of a barrier between me and the music.

With What Sudden Joy premieres as part of Southwell Music Festival 2024, at the Tenth Anniversary Concert on Sunday 25 August.