The Renaissance Choir has commissioned a new choral piece, entitled Songs of Hope, to mark its 50th anniversary in 2026.
The choir wanted to celebrate this milestone with something lasting and meaningful, rather than with simply a “pretty” piece.
Music Director Peter Gambie says that the decision was taken to commission something reflecting contemporary social concerns. Inspired by movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, he felt that the arts should amplify the voices of those marginalised by power, race, gender or religion. Having previously collaborated with composer Ian Schofield on Freedom, a work addressing the abolition of slavery, Peter sought to continue exploring themes of protest and justice.
Poet Maggie Sawkins, known for writing about oppression, proved an ideal collaborator. Maggie says that her brief was to create a long poem expressing both solidarity with the vulnerable and a strong sense of hope. Drawing on her work with refugees and asylum seekers in Portsmouth, she focused on global displacement and the fragile balance between hope and despair. The resulting poem, Songs of Hope, presents multiple perspectives — narrator, displaced voices and rescuer — and includes allusions to Emily Dickinson, William Blake and the biblical parable of the sheep and the goats. At its heart lies the belief that compassion can shift the balance toward hope.
Composer Ian Schofield says that he found the text inspiring and unusually fluid to set, and praised its structural clarity and contrasts. He was able to incorporate melodic vitality, shifting time signatures and even a Latin passage that echoes Renaissance traditions while remaining contemporary. Both poet and composer value the close collaboration.
The piece is an example of the power of music to communicate something meaningful.
The premiere will take place on Saturday 28 March at St Peter’s, Petersfield, as part of the choir’s “The Spanish Golden Age” concert, followed by a second performance at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Southsea, on Saturday 11 July.
Watch them discussing this piece on YouTube. Includes a short audio clip.
Maggie Sawkins lives in an old Station Master’s House on the Isle of Wight. Her poetry collections include The Zig Zag Woman, Charcot’s Pet, The House Where Courage Lives and Zones of Avoidance for which she won a Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. She facilitates creative writing projects in community settings, working with people from all walks of life including prisoners, those affected by substance misuse and the refugee and asylum seeker community in Portsmouth. Maggie hosted an episode of the BBC Radio 4 programme Tongue and Talk, exploring Portsmouth Dialect through Poetry. She is currently on a mini tour with ‘Flyweight’, her live literature production directed by Mark Hewitt with video sequences by Matt Parsons.
Ian Schofield studied Composition at the University of Southampton under Dr. Eric Graebner and Prof. Peter Evans. He has lived and taught in Portsmouth since 1972 and was, until retirement, a senior tutor on the specialist pre-professional music course at South Downs College.
His Te Deum, commissioned by Jonathan Willcocks and the Portsmouth Choral Union has been performed widely in the UK. The Christmas sequence Illuminare Jerusalem has had numerous performances throughout Great Britain, including the Royal Albert Hall – as well as performances and broadcasts by choirs in the USA. Other works include Freedom, a cantata on the subject of slavery – commissioned by Southampton Choral Society, with funding from a BBC Arts in the Community Award, and Hildegard’s Credo, a setting in Latin of the Creed, interspersed with texts by Hildegard of Bingen and written for Choir Orchestra and Soprano Soloist. Later this year a work written for the 50th anniversary of The Renaissance Choir – Songs of Hope – will receive its first performance.
In addition to composing, and in conjunction with the eminent musicologist Roger Parker, Ian spends much of his time transcribing, editing and preparing rare19th century operatic manuscripts by, for example, Donizetti, Rossini and less well composers such as Mercadante and Pacini.