Joyful Company of Singers and Peter Broadbent
Biographie Joyful Company of Singers and Peter Broadbent
John Casken
(b. 1949) is one of the most distinctive composers of his generation. His works range through every genre, and their titles reveal that he can be inspired by literature and legend as well as landscape and the visual arts. After studying at the University of Birmingham (1967–71), John Casken spent time in Warsaw, studying with Andrzej Dobrowolski at the Academy of Music; he also formed a long association and close friendship with the leading Polish composer Witold Lutosławski. John Casken became a Lecturer at the universities of Birmingham (1973–9) and Durham (1981–92), was a Research Fellow at Huddersfield Polytechnic (1980–81), and Professor of Music at the University of Manchester (1992–2008), with whom he retains strong links as Emeritus Professor of Music.
John Casken has had close associations with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Hallé, and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras and has worked with the Nash Ensemble, Gould Piano Trio, and, particularly, with the Lindsay String Quartet and Quatuor Danel. Nine of his works have been performed at the BBC Proms, four of them BBC commissions. He has been a featured composer at several festivals in the UK, and his music has been performed at many international concerts and festivals. Casken’s first opera, Golem, has been seen in seven different productions internationally; his second opera, God’s Liar, was performed in London, Brussels, and Vienna. Golem won the first Britten Award in 1990; the orchestral song-cycle Still Mine was awarded the Prince Pierre de Monaco Prix de Composition Musicale in 1993; The Dream of the Rood for four voices and large ensemble won a British Composer Award in 2009; and in 2020 John Casken was awarded the first Tippett Medal by the Royal Musical Association for his chamber opera The Shackled King (based on King Lear). In 2024 he was invited to become Vice-President of the Joyful Company of Singers. John Casken lives in Wooler, North Northumberland. The area’s landscape, poetry and Early Christian history have influenced his works in different ways, forming a strong thread through his music, and his own paintings.
The Joyful Company of Singers (JCS)
is a leading British amateur chamber choir, committed to performing a wide and challenging repertory of choral works from the 16th to the 21st centuries. Formed in 1988 by the conductor Peter Broadbent, the choir came to prominence when it won the 1990 Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition; it went on to win several national and international prizes. It has performed at most of the leading festivals in the UK and regularly tours in Europe, broadcasting abroad as well as for the BBC and Classic FM. It has worked with orchestras including the Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras. JCS has gained a reputation for championing under-represented 20th-century choral works, particularly by British composers. Among those who have written music for it are Kerry Andrew, David Bedford, Richard Rodney Bennett, Michael Berkeley, Judith Bingham, Zoe Dixon (the first JCS Composer-in-Association), Jonathan Harvey, Alun Hoddinott, Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Paul Reade, Giles Swayne, John Tavener and Malcolm Williamson. It has also given first performances of commissioned works by Dmitri Valentinovich Smirnov, Kaija Saariaho and Thierry Pécou.
A policy of encouraging young artists and composers has led not only to commissions but also to providing a Junior Fellowship for Young Conductors to gain experience in singing with and conducting JCS. Recording is an important part of the choir’s activity and its discography extends to over 25 albums. It frequently features previously unrecorded works, including music by Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Williamson, Jonathan Harvey, Havergal Brian and Roxanna Panufnik.
Peter Broadbent
is the founder-conductor of the Joyful Company of Singers and a leading British choral conductor. He has conducted the London Mozart Players, Divertimenti Chamber Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Southern Sinfonia, the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, Apollo Voices and the BBC Singers; he broadcasts frequently for BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. His engagements outside the UK include concerts with the Debrecen Philharmonic Orchestra and Kodály Chorus in Hungary, a broadcast with the National Chamber Choir in Dublin and a European tour with the World Youth Choir (2006). He gives workshops and masterclasses throughout Europe and was the first Director of Training for the Association of British Choral Directors. In 2007 he was presented with the Pro Cultura Hungarica Award by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture for his services to Anglo-Hungarian musical relations, and in early 2016 he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit. Peter Broadbent was made MBE in the 2022 New Year’s Honours List.
