“Studzinski is one of London’s great patrons of the arts.”

Catholic Herald

“For MacMillan…the text…speaks of a ‘painful world of loss, violence, and spiritual desolation’, and those are the intense feelings packed into his score.”

Financial Times

On Saturday 15 October 2016, the Genesis Foundation’s most recent commission, Stabat Mater by James MacMillan received its world premiere at London’s Barbican Centre with an ecstatic standing ovation and unanimous critical praise. Performed by long-term Genesis Foundation partners, The Sixteen under Harry Christophers with the Britten Sinfonia, MacMillan’s Stabat Mater is a profound and deeply moving rendering of the Stabat Mater text.

Harry Christophers and his forces then toured the Stabat Mater around the country including Saffron Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and St Andrew’s Hall in Norwich. The Scottish premieres of the Stabat Mater with Harry Christophers, The Sixteen and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra took place on 23 & 24 March 2017 in Edinburgh and Glasgow, before heading into the recording studio to make a commercial recording, now on release.

The premier performance was the culmination of three years of Genesis Foundation commissions and projects based on the Stabat Mater, including premiere performances of Stabat Maters from Alissa Firsova, Tõnu Kõrvits and Matthew Martin. James MacMillan worked with Harry Christophers on mentoring the young composers commissioned by the Foundation ensuring a lasting legacy of new choral music.

‘It’s not often that the composer of a new work gets a standing ovation, but then every new work isn’t like James MacMIllan’s Stabat Mater for chorus and string orchestra.’

The Times

For more information about the Genesis Foundation’s projects with James MacMillan, including the Stabat Mater please click here

To pre-order your CD of James MacMillan’s Stabat Mater with The Sixteen, follow the link here

To read more about the Genesis Foundation and Harry Christophers & The Sixteen click here