WATCH: Peterborough composer releases new "soulful" orchestra piece that "tells a story"
A new “soulful” piece of music - which wouldn’t seem out of place in a big-budget historical film drama - has been created by a Peterborough composer.
Joanna Borrett’s string orchestra piece ‘Then’ is set to be released by Signum Classics across various digital streaming platforms on April 28th.
Then is a one-movement work which the 69 year-old composed last year, and features two viola soloists.
"I think everything I compose has a sense of narrative,” said Joanna, who moved to Peterborough in 1983 to form Peterborough String Orchestra.
"As soon as I started composing the tune for Then, it was viola sound that I had in my head. I chose two soloists, rather than one, because I wanted the music to have the intimacy of chamber music rather than the bravura of a concerto.
"My aim was for the piece to tell a story, and I felt that the varying textures of the soloists and orchestra would help to achieve this.”
As reported in August last year, Joanna’s music has been studied alongside the likes of Bach, Mozart, and Elgar - after Trinity College London selected three of her works for its prestigious music exam syllabus. It was only five years ago that she first submitted her work to national music companies – making the success she’s achieved in that time all the more impressive.
Then was recorded last October by Her Ensemble with viola soloists Luba Tunnicliffe and Ting-Ru Lai at St Jude on the Hill Church in North London - not far from where Joanna grew up. It’s the first of three string orchestra pieces of Joanna's that Signum Classics is promoting this year. The other two works - Rebellion and Interlude - are being released in July and October.
Luba Tunnicliffe said: “Joanna Borrett’s ‘Then’ feels like an incredibly soulful and human piece of music. It’s very special as an instrumentalist to be trusted to bring a piece like this to life.”
Joanna commented: “It has been a joy to work with such excellent string players in this recording and hear them bring that story to life so beautifully.”
She now hopes amateur and professional players will enjoy listening to Then and will want to play the music. With this in mind, Joanna has made a viola and piano arrangement and a string quartet arrangement of the music available on her website.