Welcome, Madam President!
The Joyful Company of Singers is delighted to announce that our new President is Roxanna Panufnik FRAM, GRSM (Hons), LRAM.
Roxanna has kindly accepted our invitation to step up from her role as a JCS Vice President, and takes over from Brian Kay, to whom we are indebted for his support over the years.
Roxanna is a prolific composer of works across a wide range of genres and which regularly feature in performances all over the world, including opera, ballet, music theatre, choral works, chamber compositions and music for film and television.
Among her most widely performed works – including performances by JCS – is her Westminster Mass, commissioned to mark Cardinal Hume’s 75th birthday in May 1998. More recently, her work reached truly global live audiences when she was commissioned by His Majesty King Charles III to write Coronation Sanctus, performed at the Coronation in May 2023, with an orchestral arrangement of this being premièred in the Last Night of the Proms later that year.
Roxanna is especially interested in building musical bridges between faiths and across continents, and JCS is privileged to be giving the London Première – appropriately on St Cecilia’s Day – of her Elegy for Fadima. In this powerful and moving piece for double choir and organ, she sets the text of the Nigerian poet and Sufi Muslim scholar Nana Asma’u, originally written in the Hausa language in 1863-4.
Welcoming Roxanna as our new President, our Music Director Peter Broadbent said:
“I am particularly pleased that Roxanna has agreed to become our President, because JCS has a long association with her personally as well as musically. It is now 25 years since we first performed her music in the collection A Garland for Linda, and we have since travelled to Poland to sing her Westminster Mass and recorded her music for Warner Classics amongst many performances in the UK. Her charm, energy and positivity at rehearsals and performances are always a tonic for the singers, and we look forward to continuing this long relationship.”
Roxanna said on accepting our invitation:
“I am so thrilled to be President for the fabulous Joyful Company of Singers, with whom I have worked for over a quarter of a century. Their warmth, dexterity and highly committed performances are indeed Joyful and I look forward hugely to continuing our professional and personal relationship.”
You can see and hear Roxanna herself, as well as hear her music, when she takes part in the pre-concert talk at our St Cecilia’s Day concert on 22nd November 2024 in St Gabriel’s Church, Pimlico, London SW1V 2AD.
Tickets for the concert are now on sale for £20 (£10 Adult & U30 Concessions, U12 Free) from www.eventbrite.co.uk (plus booking fee).
Photograph of Roxanna Panufnik by Benjamin Ealovega.