A re-telling of the Nativity for children's choirs and narrator, told from the perspective of the innkeeper's son.
Composer • Performer • Teacher
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Christmas 2025
Well, we've just reached the end of another busy term! All the “day-in-day-out” stuff - writing, playing and teaching - has been going on apace, but there have definitely been a few highlights. A couple of months ago I was asked if I could write something for a local youth cello ensemble who'd been fortunate enough to reach the Music For Youth finals at the Royal Albert Hall, otherwise known as the Youth Proms. Given the time of year I thought it might be fun to simultaneously honour our county of Lincolnshire as well a nod to the season, so I came up with A Lincolnshire Poacher's Halloween Nightmare! This was a fun re-work of the well known folk song, incorporating various spooky touches along the way! We were able to attend the performance, and the players of the group performed it wonderfully, a real credit to their teacher and director, Rachel Hill.
For me, there were also shades of deja vu - some thirteen years ago I was commissioned to compose one of the large scale performances for the same event, and we took several hundred students on that occasion to perform my piece, Lincolnshire Skies, a tribute to the dambusters. Figuring that a ten-minute piece for oversize wind band, jazz ensemble and massed choir was unlikely to see many future outings(!) I reworked it into a 45 minute suite for jazz big band, vocalists and narrator. By happy coincidence, we're planning a new performance next May 2nd at the International Bomber Command Centre here in Lincoln, with Steve Walker's Big Swing Band. It's shaping up to be a fantastic event, and tickets are available now from the IBCC website.
Christmas brings its own delights of course! I always look forward to two events in particular that really symbolise the start of “proper” Christmas for me - Lincoln Wassail, now in its 48th year, this year held at St Peter in Eastgate church just round the corner from Lincoln Cathedral. It's an hour of massed singing of traditional carols in a very informal setting, all lubricated with a small libation of something seasonal and warming… We've also just celebrated our annual Folk Carol service at Monks Road Methodist Church, another lovely occasion of singing (slightly) more formal renditions of old carols and readings, accompanied by a fantastic semi-pro 8-piece band drawn from friends and family.
And of course, I couldn't omit the atmospheric carol service put on by Burton Hathow School, where I'm music director. This year the combined infant and junior choirs gave a spirited rendition of a new piece I composed for them entitled A Nativity Triptych, narrated by one of our Year 5 students. They made Mrs Nowell and I extremely proud, and I'm sure their parents too! Have a listen below to a very spontaneous live recording!
Every blessing for Christmas and the New Year.