Gabriel Jackson: Choral Works The Choir of Canterbury Cathedral & David Newsholme

• Gabriel Jackson (b. 1962): Praise Ye The Lord:
• 1 Jackson: Praise Ye The Lord 07:39
• In All His Works:
• 2 Jackson: In All His Works 03:53
• Canterbury Concertos:
• 3 Jackson: Canterbury Concertos 09:41
• Mass of St Mary:
• 4 Jackson: Mass of St Mary: I. Kyrie 02:23
• 5 Jackson: Mass of St Mary: II. Gloria 05:59
• 6 Jackson: Mass of St Mary: III. Sanctus & Benedictus 02:39
• 7 Jackson: Mass of St Mary: IV. Agnus Dei 03:40
• Ave maris stella:
• 8 Jackson: Ave maris stella 10:25
• Coronation Canticles:
• 9 Jackson: Coronation Canticles: I. Magnificat 07:58
• 10 Jackson: Coronation Canticles: II. Nunc dimittis 03:17
• O Virgo virginum:
• 11 Jackson: O Virgo virginum 03:38
• Southwark Symphonies:
• 12 Jackson: Southwark Symphonies 08:38
• O quam gloriosum:
• 13 Jackson: O quam gloriosum 05:07
• Total Runtime 01:14:57

Info for Gabriel Jackson: Choral Works

Few contemporary composers have enriched the choral repertoire quite like Gabriel Jackson, and this recording from the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral is a luminous testament to his singular voice. Rooted in the grand traditions of English sacred music yet infused with a distinctly modern harmonic palette, Jackson's writing revels in soaring treble lines, shimmering textures, and a deep affinity for space and resonance. Under the direction of David Newsholme, the Choir delivers these works with a compelling combination of precision and fervour, illuminating the rich polyphony of Ave maris stella, the jubilant energy of Praise ye the Lord, and the grandeur of the Coronation Canticles. The Cathedral's organ, resplendent in Canterbury Concertos, emerges as a protagonist in its own right. This is music that both honours tradition and expands its boundaries, performed with eloquence and authority.

The Choir of Canterbury Cathedral
David Newsholme, direction

The Choir of Canterbury Cathedral
continues a centuries-old tradition of singing which dates back more than 1,400 years to the Cathedral’s foundation by St Augustine in 597 AD. Today the Choir comprises two separate treble lines – one of boy choristers (aged 7–14), and one of girl choristers (aged 12–18) – each of which sing alongside twelve professional Lay Clerks. The Choir maintains a wide repertoire that ranges from the earliest plainchant and Renaissance polyphony to great choral works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and compositions by living composers.

The Choir’s primary purpose is to sing the daily offices which take place at the Cathedral. These services frequently attract hundreds of visitors; they are broadcast live online and are appreciated by a substantial global audience. The Choir sings at numerous occasions of national and international significance which take place at the Cathedral, many of which are broadcast live on radio and on television.

Alongside its liturgical work, the Choir pursues a varied programme of concerts, tours and recordings. It has performed extensively throughout the USA and in Europe, and it has appeared at high-profile music festivals and at leading venues in the UK.

David Newsholme
is Director of Music at Canterbury Cathedral, where he is responsible for training the Cathedral’s choirs, and for all other musical aspects of the Cathedral’s work.

David was educated as a chorister at Worcester Cathedral. He held the organ scholarship at Salisbury Cathedral before studying at New College, Oxford, and at the University of York.

David was Assistant Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College, before moving to Canterbury in 2011 to become Assistant Organist (Assistant Director of Music). In 2014 he became founding Director of the Cathedral Girls’ Choir, before taking up his current post in 2021.

Gabriel Jackson
is one of Britain’s foremost and most celebrated composers. His music is regularly performed, recorded and broadcast throughout Europe and North America and has recently been heard as far afield as Taipei, Moscow, Skálholt, Ho Chi Minh City, Hobart, Kyiv and Kuwait. Particularly acclaimed for his choral works, he is a frequent collaborator with the leading professional groups of the world, including The Sixteen, the DR VokalEnsemblet, the State Choir “Latvija”, the Nederlands Kamerkoor, the Tallis Scholars, Ars Nova Copenhagen, the Swedish and Bavarian Radio Choirs and Philadelphia’s The Crossing, for whom he has composed five works. From 2010 to 2013 he was Associate Composer to the BBC Singers, producing a series of substantial pieces for the group including a virtuoso four-movement Choral Symphony.

Gabriel Jackson was born in Bermuda in 1962. After three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, Jackson went on to study composition with Richard Blackford and later with John Lambert at the Royal College of Music. While at the college he won the Theodore Holland Award in 1981 and was awarded the R.O. Morris Prize for Composition in 1981 and 1983.

In 2003 he won the liturgical category at the inaugural British Composer Awards with O Doctor optime, and won two further prizes in the choral category with The Spacious Firmament in 2009 and Airplane Cantata in 2012.

Alongside his work with voices he has written a number of instrumental pieces that take their inspiration from conceptual artists Richard Long, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Yoko Ono. A longstanding interest in the technology and the aesthetics of aviation has produced a series of works that explore the “miracle of powered flight” including A Vision of Aeroplanes for choir, The White Bird for Eb clarinet and piano, Luna 21 in the Sea of Serenity for ensemble, and LM-7: Aquarius for saxophone quartet.

Jackson’s music can be heard on over 100 recordings including seven discs devoted exclusively to his work on Delphian Records, Regent, Hyperion and Signum Classics.

Recent large-scale works include a Piano Concerto (2009) for the Presteigne Festival, the string-ensemble Doonies Hill Antiphon (2010) for Red Note Ensemble, In Nomine Domini (2010) for the BBC Proms, a 35-minute cantata To the Field of Stars (2011) and La musique (2013), premiered by Dame Felicity Lott and the Choir of Royal Holloway at the Cheltenham Festival.

In April 2014 his hour-long The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, commissioned for the 750th anniversary of Merton College, Oxford, had its first performance in the college chapel and its New York premiere ten days later. The Delphian first recording of the work won the Choral prize at the 2020 BBC Music Magazine Awards.

May 2015 saw the premiere, at the Latvian National Opera, of his half-hour piece for soprano, choir and orchestra Spring Rounds, commissioned by Youth Choir Kamēr… for their 25th anniversary.

In July 2017 Exile Meditations, a 30-minute work that interleaves texts by present-day Middle Eastern displaced persons and poems by post-war European refugees, was premiered at the Railway Museum in Riga and the following year his extended Stabat mater, commissioned by The Marian Consort to celebrate their 10th birthday, was toured across the UK.

Recent premieres include The World Imagined for tenor, chorus and orchestra at the 2021 Three Choirs Festival, with the first American performance, by co-commissioners the Elgin Master Chorale, following in May 2022. Mass of St James, also for choir and orchestra, commissioned for the bicentenary of St James’ King Street, Sydney recieved its Covid-delayed premiere in July 2022. His second major collaboration with Benjamin Nicholas and the Choir of Merton College, Oxford, the hour-long The Christmas Story, was first performed in December 2023.

Booklet for Gabriel Jackson: Choral Works