✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Contemporary Music

Music for the Coronation: composers, artists and traditions

On 06 May 23, By invitation; broadcast and streamed worldwide

Stars from the worlds of opera and the musical stage will join cathedral choirs in a ceremony that proves King Charles III's genuine interest in music

By Claudia Pritchard on 19/2/2023

Soprano Pretty Yende will sing at the coronation of King Charles III
Soprano Pretty Yende will sing at the coronation of King Charles III
Music for the Coronation: composers, artists and traditions Music for the Coronation: composers, artists and traditions Claudia Pritchard
The music world has taken heart from early news about the role of today’s composers and artists in the Coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6 May.


While some traditional music will be performed before and during the ceremony, new pieces performed by diverse artists are a ringing endorsement from Buckingham Palace of today’s brilliant British musicians.


Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber will compose a new Coronation Anthem, one of 12 new pieces commissioned for the service at Westminster Abbey. There the new organist and choirmaster Andrew Netsinghe, recently arrived from King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, will be on his new home turf, welcoming fellow musicians including Sir Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House.


Coronation performer and composer Roderick Williams. Photo: Richard Lewisohn


Pappano will conduct the bespoke Coronation Orchestra, handpicked players including some from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, of which the King was patron as Prince of Wales. Other performers include the soprano Pretty Yende, who last year thrilled Royal Opera House audiences as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata.


Also from the world of opera, Sir Bryn Terfel will perform, and baritone Roderick Williams will be present as both singer and composer.


Other composers include the versatile Iain Farrington, Tarik O'Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Debbie Wiseman and and the first female Master of the King’s Music, Judith Weir. In a refreshing acknowledgement of the many very talented women composers working today, six of the 12 new works will be written by women.



Royal Harpist Alis Huws will join the specially created Coronation Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano

The orchestra will include the Royal Harpist, Alis Huws, reflecting the King’s affinity with the principality of Wales, and the many choirs combined include those from Belfast, the choirs of Westminster Abbey the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace and Truro Cathedral Choir. The bespoke Ascension Choir will also sing, but it will be the King’s Scholars of Westminster School who will proclaim the traditional ‘Vivat’ acclamations.


The rousing ‘Vivat’ shout comes from Sir Hubert Parry’s great anthem ‘I was glad’, sure to be one of the many traditional pieces also performed. Composers of such classics include William Byrd, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir William Walton and Ralph Vaughan Williams.



Composer Roxanna Panufnik has been commissioned to write a new work for the Coronation

Before the service begins and as guests arrive, early music specialist Sir John Eliot Gardiner will conduct the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque soloists in a sequence of music to set the scene. Later, Greek Orthodox music will be performed by the Byzantine Chant Ensemble, a tribute to the Greek ancestry of the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.


King Charles was an able amateur cellist as a young man, and his Prince's Trust used music as a route to straightening out and opening up the lives of countless young people. While Queen Elizabeth II attended some musical events, there are signs that her heir will be a more active supporter of the arts.


At the heart of his ceremony will be the stirring anthem Zadok the Priest, sung at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and at the coronation of every monarch since George II. Its German-born composer George Friderick Handel was granted British nationality in time for that coronation in 1727. Nearly 300 years later it is as impressive as it ever was. Lord Lloyd-Webber has a hard act to follow...

by Claudia Pritchard

What Music for the Coronation: composers, artists and traditions
Where Westminster Abbey, Dean's Yard , London, SW1P 3PA | MAP
When On 06 May 23, By invitation; broadcast and streamed worldwide
Price £0
Website Click here for more information



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 24–26 March. Photo: The Parakeet, Kentish Town
Things to do in London this weekend: 24–26 March
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast
Best art exhibitions in London. Photo: Thin Air at the Beams
Top exhibitions on now in London

Editor's Picks

Elim Chan is one of the exciting new conductors paving the way for other women. Photo: Lau Kwok Key
After Tár: women conductors to watch in London
Roxanna Panufnik at work in her London home. Photo: Benjamin Ealovega
Roxanna Panufnik interview: life as a Last Night of the Proms composer
The Queen goes backstage at the Royal Ballet in 2002. Photo: Rob Moore/ROH
The Queen and London's arts scene
Baritone Roderick Williams is taking a leaf out of Ed Sheeran's book
Roderick Williams interview: 'Opera is for everyone – we all love stories'
The world's leading music festival, the BBC Proms, runs from July to September. Photo: Chris Christodoulou
Classical and Opera 2023: looking ahead to the best music
Temple Church is famed for its atmospheric performances of Messiah. Photo: Chris Christodoulou
Handel's Messiah: the key to Christmas music
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Westminster Abbey

Sir Antonio Pappano

Pretty Yende

Roderick Williams



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×