Peterborough Cathedral Commissions New Music from Award-Winning Composer, Alexander L’Estrange 

Peterborough Cathedral is delighted to announce an exciting collaboration with award winning British composer, arranger, and jazz musician, Alexander L’Estrange. Alexander L’Estrange has been commissioned by the Cathedral’s Director of Music, Tansy Castledine, to write a new cantata for Upper Voices, piano / organ / optional jazz ensemble. The project celebrates the 40th anniversary of the relationship between the Worshipful Company of Plaisterers and Peterborough Cathedral. The cantata is comprised of four songs titled, Oh Saint Nicholas, The A-Z of Saints, St Francis and To be a Saint, which can be sung in combination as a set, or individually as standalone pieces, and is based on the theme of the Saints. 

Written originally for schools in the Peterborough Diocese, this commission is the second part of the anniversary celebration project; the first included a singing day and a performance of the well-loved sacred musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, where schools from across the Diocese were invited to take part.  

Alexander L’Estrange (b.1974) is an award-winning British composer, arranger, jazz musician and choral animateur of international acclaim. A graduate of Oxford University, he has been dubbed “the added 9th of choral music” due to his consummate fusion of the English choral tradition with jazz. The world premiere of the new cantata will be conducted by the composer himself at Peterborough Cathedral on 5th March at 1630. The concert will involve over 200 local school children from the Peterborough Diocese and the music will then be made available to schools worldwide to use in their collective worship gatherings, assemblies, music lessons, and concerts.  

Peterborough Cathedral’s Director of Music, Tansy Castledine said: 

“We are hugely grateful to The Worshipful Company of Plaisterers for their continued generous support of the choral worship tradition that we have at Peterborough Cathedral, and for their support of the choristers. It has been an enormous privilege to be able to commission Alexander to write some new repertoire for upper voices, based on the theme of saints, which we hope can be used in any Primary school across the world in their worship, music lessons, or concerts. We hope the songs from the new cantata will become a staple of the upper voice repertoire. They are hugely memorable, with texts that are accessible and eloquent; the songs are all in different musical styles ranging from beautiful crafted lyrical lines to songs which are more rhythmic and jazzy to get those fingers clicking! We look forward to hearing the massed voices in song on March 5th at the very special concert for the world premiere.” 

Tickets for the concert are free and available now at Peterborough Cathedral Music online ticket sales powered by TicketSource. To find out more information about the commission and how to access the music, contact music@peterborough-cathedral.org.uk