Commissions
An important legacy of the William Byrd Singers is the body of new compositions either commissioned for or directly by the choir, or resulting from our occasional Composers’ Competitions. The list of commissions and first performances is as follows:
- 1970 David Ellis: Non nobis, Domine (WBS Commission)
- 1977 Stephen Wilkinson: That Time of Year (first performance)
- 1978 Sebastian Forbes: Four Poems (WBS Commission)
- 1978 Elizabeth Maconchy: The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo (WBS Commission)
- 1979 James Wilson: The Rape of the Lock (WBS Commission)
- 1980 Michael Ball: Sainte Marye Virgine (WBS commission)
- 1980 Stephen Dodgson: Sir John (WBS Commission)
- 1980 John McCabe: Siberia (Cork Festival Commission)
- 1981 Margaret Lucy Wilkins: Gitanjali (WBS Commission)
- 1983 Stephen Wilkinson: Dover Beach (first performance)
- 1984 Gerard Victory: King Sweeney (WBS Commission)
- 1987 Michael Ball: A maide so bright (first performance)
- 1987 Alan Bullard: A Madrigal Book (first performance)
- 1988 Stephen Wilkinson: Betjeman’s Bells (Bowdon Festival Commission)
- 1989 Stephen Wilkinson: Some Psalms (first performance)
- 1991 Mervyn Cooke: A Funeral for a Feathered Friend (Prize, WBS Young Composers’ Competition)
- 1991 Graham Redwood: The Swans (Winner, WBS Young Composers’ Competition)
- 1994 Graham Redwood: The Peach Tree (first performance)
- 1994 Graham Redwood: The Flowering Forest (first performance)
- 1995 Richard Rodney Bennett: Calico Pie (WBS commission)
- 1996 Graham Redwood: Les plus beaux yeux du monde (first performance)
- 1998 Alan Charlton: Earth, Sweet Earth (WBS Competition winner)
- 2016 Keith Orrell: Exultet (first performance)
- 2019 Stephen Wilkinson: The Singing will never be done (first performance)
- 2019 Keith Orrell: The Sacrifice (first performance)
- 2019 Ed Puddick: One Universal Shout (first performance)