BBC Singers - Commissioned Works

Commissioned Works

Over the past eight decades the BBC Singers have performed and commissioned more than a hundred new works. These include pieces by Michael Berkeley, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, John Casken, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Thea Musgrave, Edmund Rubbra, Robert Saxton, Sir John Tavener, Sir Michael Tippett and Iannis Xenakis.

Select list of commissioned works:

• Judith Bingham – A Winter Walk at Noon - First broadcast 2 March 1986
• Benjamin Britten – A Shepherd’s Carol & Chorale: Our Father Whose Creative Will - First broadcast 24 December 1944
• Sir Peter Maxwell Davies – Apple-Basket: Apple-Blossom - First broadcast 23 December 1990
• James Dillon – Viriditas - First broadcast 24 April 1994
• Nicola LeFanu – The Story of Mary O’Neill - First broadcast 4 January 1989
• Thea Musgrave – For the Time Being: Advent - First broadcast 18 July 1987
• Edmund Rubbra – Veni, Creator Spiritus - First broadcast 5 August 1966
• Sir Michael Tippett – The Weeping Babe - First broadcast 24 December 1944
• Iannis Xenakis – Sea Nymphs - First broadcast 16 September 1994

In 2002 Edward Cowie became the BBC Singers’ first Associate Composer. In this role, Cowie produced multiple new works each year for performance by the Singers, and took part in workshops with young composers from schools, universities and music colleges.

Judith Bingham was the next to fill this position, in 2004, and was succeeded in 2010 by Gabriel Jackson.