I am the World: Choral and Organ Music for International Women’s Day

A PDF version of this programme, including the sung texts, can be viewed here:

Anon.
Alleluia: Vidimus stellam (Gregorian chant)  1’

Kristina Arakelyan
Star Fantasy on Alleluia: Vidimus stellam  6’

June Nixon
Alleluias world premiere  c4’

Kerensa Briggs
Hear my prayer  6’

Sarah MacDonald
Trio on ‘Attende, Domine’  2’

Melissa Dunphy
I am the World BBC commission: world premiere  c8’

Cecilia McDowall
Veni, Creator Spiritus  3’

Judith Bingham
Ave virgo sanctissima  5’

Ghislaine Reece-Trapp
Mass for the Mystery of Faith world premiere  c13’

Ghislaine Reece-Trapp
In Paradisum  5’

Anna Lapwood organ
BBC Singers
Grace Rossiter conductor

Presented by Katie Derham

This concert is being broadcast live by BBC Radio 3. It will be available for 30 days after broadcast via BBC Sounds, where you can also find podcasts and music mixes.

Biographies

Grace Rossiter conductor

Born in London, Grace Rossiter is a choral conductor, composer and arranger. A champion of youth music, she has been Musical Director of the Finchley Children’s Music Group since 2001. FCMG regularly works with leading international orchestras and she has prepared the choir for conductors including Marin Alsop, Martyn Brabbins, Colin Davis, Richard Hickox, Kurt Masur, Alexander Vedernikov and Mark Wigglesworth.

Her work with FCMG includes large-scale events such as singing with Madonna at Wembley for Live Earth, and staged productions with the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, English National Opera and Rambert Dance Company. She conducted the London premiere of Michael Finnissy’s children’s opera Mankind for the London Contemporary Music Festival and the world premiere of Malcolm Singer’s The Jailer’s Tale at the artsdepot, with subsequent concert performances at Menuhin Hall and London’s Southbank. She has also premiered choral works by James Weeks, John Pickard and Ian Stephens with the group, and Terry Mann’s score for Common Dance choreographed by Rosemary Lee for Dance Umbrella.

She gave the premiere of Kerry Andrew’s No Place Like, conducting the Ten Pieces Children’s Choir at the BBC Proms, and has directed the BBC Proms Youth Choir Academy since its launch in 2017. She is also closely associated with the Sing Up! scheme, recording repertoire for their Song Bank since its introduction in 2007 as part of the government’s national singing programme.

Grace Rossiter is Deputy Chorus Director of the BBC Symphony Chorus and Musical Director of Finchley Choral Society, and has worked with Crouch End Festival Chorus and Brighton Festival Chorus as a vocal coach and chorusmaster. She has been a guest conductor with the BBC Singers, for whom she has also arranged a number of popular works for BBC Music Day and Children in Need.

Anna Lapwood organ

Anna Lapwood is an organist, conductor and broadcaster, and was appointed Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 2016 at the age of 21. While studying at Oxford University, she was the first woman in Magdalen College’s 560-year history to be appointed organ scholar.

Recent performances include a recital from St David’s Hall, Cardiff, for BBC Radio 3, a live stream from Leeds Town Hall and Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with the London Chamber Orchestra under Chloé van Soeterstède. Last September she made her BBC Proms debut as soloist in Saint‑Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony with the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder, performing the same work later that month with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Kazuki Yamada.

She made her TV presenting debut in 2020, hosting coverage of BBC Young Musician, and presented a televised Prom last summer. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radios 3 and 4 in addition to featuring on Classic FM and Scala Radio.

A strong advocate for music education at home and abroad, she specialises in bringing music to children from impoverished backgrounds. When the pandemic halted much of her work in this area overseas, she focused her efforts closer to home, founding and conducting the NHS Chorus-19, a virtual choir made up of more than 1,000 NHS staff from across the UK.