Cecilia Speaks is a setting for unaccompanied mixed choir of three poems by Isabel Rogers and winner of the 2014 Cardiff International Poetry Competition. Ian Stephens comments about this word and music collaboration:
I got to know Isabel many years ago when we were colleagues in the cello section at Pigotts Music Camp, an inspirational place in the Chiltern Hills. It was there that she got to know my music, and I her poetry. When the opportunity came up for her to commission some settings of her beautiful and many-layered poems, I was delighted that it was me that she turned to.
Cecilia Speaks was then written for Exmoor Singers of London in 2015.
In Spring 2019, The Elysian Singers will perform Cecilia Speaks in a programme that features contemporary part-songs and classic folksongs.
Cecilia Speaks and other works by Ian Stephens is available through Composers Edition website.
Ian Stephens Profile & WorksSongs of Love and Life
The Elysian Singers perform Cecilia Speaks, by Ian Stephens, also works by Vaughan Williams, Owen Leech, Alec Roth, Mark Fleming and Alexander Campkin.
Saturday 16 February 2019, 7:30pm
St Pancras Church, London
Tags: Cardiff International Poetry Competition, contemporary choral, Exmoor Singers of London, Ian Stephens, Isabel Rogers, Songs of Love and Life, St Pancras Church London, The Elysian Singers