Hello dear patrons,

I am delighted to let you know about another recent album release, on Divine Art Recordings, of a new song cycle called ‘Kingdoms’. The cycle was commissioned by the Nigerian-American poet Chinwe D John, setting her own lyrics for tenor Nick Pritchard and pianist Christopher Glynn.

I immediately found Chinwe’s lyrics evocative and captivating, and wrote the 4 songs quite quickly during September 2021. It’s interesting to reflect on the fact that this international collaboration, conceived at the height of the Covid pandemic, was in part made possible by the new ways of living and working online that we had developed: the whole collaboration, between two people who have never met in person, was conducted online. Here are the listening and CD purchase links for the cycle: https://listn.fm/songsforourtimes/

Chinwe and I have also recorded a conversation about the cycle (linked below), talking about our inspiration and collaboration.

Thanks for your ongoing support, and best wishes,

Stuart