BBC Proms 2026

I'm very happy to be part of this year's BBC Proms in the UK! My piece, "Sat on the Shore," composed in Puducherry (Pondicherry), will be featured in the beautiful setting of The Glasshouse in Gateshead, UK. This is part of the special North East celebrations of the Proms:

My piece is in a wonderful culminating event called "Choirs on the Concourse." The BBC describes the concert as "A mini choral convention, shining a spotlight on voices from the North East as well as on the BBC Singers."

The work of mine that is featured, "Sat on the Shore," is perfect for a summer day on the UK North East coast. The piece, available through VOCES8 Publishing, was originally commissioned by the Nightingale Vocal Ensemble in Boston for a concert on climate awareness. Nightingale was looking for a new piece that would celebrate the natural beauty of shorelines that we so often take for granted.

The score and score preview are available here.

While I had access to many different beaches at the time that I composed this piece, I felt particularly moved by the waves at Pondicherry. As I write in the program note, the area around this shoreline is especially sublime: closed off to motor vehicles, the beach road is only accessible by foot, and there's a tacit communal agreement among the residents, tourists and devotees at the nearby Sri Aurobindo Ashram to respect and preserve the sanctity of this special place.

I wrote the text and music for this piece. Memorably, it includes lines like: "Put away your mobile devices / You'll survive! / Put away your myriad devices (vices) / They'll anyway / fall victim to sand and spray!"

The full list of performers for the event includes: the BBC Singers and conductor Sofi Jeannin, saxophonist Jess Gillam, the Chorus of the Royal Northern Sinfonia (director: Tim Burke), and Voices of the River's Edge (director: Simon Davies-Findler). The concert covers a huge range of music through the centuries. I'm honored to be part of it!

In the meantime, you can see a performance of this piece by the Voces8 Scholars below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7gz5jrf058