A NEW piece of music written by a Coventry composer premiered at Coventry Cathedral’s Choral Evensong in the first live City of Culture event – 18 months later than originally planned.
The new work sung for the first time on Sunday May 16 was a set of Canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis) commissioned by the Friends of Coventry Cathedral for the UK City of Culture.
It was composed by Coventry-born Jonathan Rathbone, a former King Henry VIII pupil and chorister at the Cathedral, who now spends his time arranging and orchestrating. Katherine Jenkins, Sir Cliff Richard and the choir of King’s College Cambridge are among those with whom he was worked.
He followed in the footsteps of his father John and grandfather George who also sang in the Cathedral choir – George was one of the singers in the famous wartime Empire Broadcast service from the Cathedral Ruins on Christmas day 1940.
Martin Williams, Chair of the Friends, said: “The Friends of Coventry Cathedral planned this service 18 months ago because we wanted to commission new Cathedral music as a
contribution to Coventry’s Year as City of Culture.
“The Canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis) are sung in churches around the world, and our hope is that the Coventry setting will be sung in churches far and
wide in years to come.
“When the Friends set out on this journey we had no idea that coronavirus would cause the postponement of the starting date of the year. As someone brought up in Coventry I am proud the Cathedral Choral Evensong was the opening live event of Coventry’s City of Culture year.
“This was a world premiere created by a group of people from Coventry, written by a composer brought up in Coventry, sung by a diverse choir of
young voices drawn from homes across our city and heard for the first time in the setting of our internationally-renowned Cathedral.
“This was truly Coventry in Action! It was a most appropriate start for Coventry’s special year.”
The Evensong service is available to view on the Cathedral’s Facebook page here. The Cathedral is currently hosting the Ruth Borchard Collection’s Self-Portrait Prize 2021 – the only UK art competition to focus exclusively on self-portraiture. To book a free Exhibitions and Entry ticket go here.
