Voices (2021) 60'

Instrumentation: Narrator, Solo Soprano, Solo Violin, 6S6A, Harp, Bass Drum, strings (4.4.6.24.12) + electronics

VOICES is a reflection on and celebration of Human Rights.

It’s easy these days to feel hopeless, and though the Declaration isn’t a perfect document, it holds out the possibility for a kinder and better world and offers us a way forward

When I was writing VOICES, it felt like the world was turning upside down. And so, it is written for an orchestra which is ‘upside down’, not dominated by the high frequencies of upper strings and woodwind, as in a conventional orchestra, but low frequencies of cellos and basses.

For the recording, we invited people around the world to be part of the piece, crowd-sourcing readings of the Declaration. In over 70 languages, along with the voice of Roosevelt from 1949, they form the landscape that the music flows through: they are the voices of the title.