THE GLORY TREE

Chamber Works by Cheryl Frances-Hoad

Cheryl Frances-Hoad has a unique and special compositional voice, recently becoming the youngest composer to win two prizes in the same year at the British Composer Awards, in 2010.

Since winning the BBC Young Composer Competition in 1996, at the age of 15, Cheryl’s works have garnered high praise and awards from all quarters. Over recent years, she has had numerous notable successes, with commissions including solo, chamber, orchestral and choral works, as well as opera.

Champs Hill Records is delighted to present this collection of Cheryl’ s chamber music, performed in many cases by the musicians who commissioned and gave the premiere performances of the works.

“The Glory Tree had remarkable scoring, stratospheric singing and was performed with shamanic authority, her final scream reverberating through the cloisters.” Keith Bruce, The Herald

The songs of the title work on this disc - The Glory Tree - are arresting settings, in original Anglo-Saxon, from The Dream of the Rood and Judith, treated as the utterances of Shamanic ritual. Shamanism also provides the inspiration for the solo violin work The Snow Woman written for, and played here by, Natalia Lomeiko.

These works are typical of the fertile soil for musical invention which Cheryl Frances-Hoad finds in literary inspiration. Stories, poems or literary ideas have provided the spark for many works on this disc,

performed by exceptionally talented musicians, including Nicholas Daniel (oboe), the Lenvai String Trio, the Kriesler Ensemble, Leonid Gorokhov (cello), the London Mozart Trio, Ensemble na Mara,

and others.

The disc is packed with 77mins of music, all newly recorded in the Music Room at Champs Hill.

Champs Hill Records CHRCD021