i breathe
The debut album of
Nathan James Dearden
released 6 November 2026
JOIN US FOR A LAUNCH
Join Nathan and our Featured Artists at one or more of these special album launches this November in Wales and England
-
NO BOOKING REQUIRED
Chapel of Royal Holloway [More info here]
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, England1.15pm - 1.45pm
Join the Choir of Royal Holloway as they perform this short concert to mark the launch of Nathan James Dearden’s debut album. This concert will feature works written especially for the choir, and music that has inspired Dearden over the past ten years of working with the Choir of Royal Holloway.
NO BOOKING REQUIRED
-
Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great [More info here]
Cloth Fair, London7.30pm - 9.30pm
Join Nathan and featured artists from this special debut album release in the place where the recording process all began - the historic St. Bartholomew-the-Great.
This event will include an immersive live choral performance from alumni of the Choir of Royal Holloway, a Q&A between composer and writer Hattie Butterworth, and a drinks reception where you will have the opportunity to meet with many of the featured artists.
-
Norwegian Church Arts Centre [More info here]
Cardiff Bay, Wales5.00pm - 7.00pm
Join composer Nathan James Dearden for a special Welsh launch of his debut album, beginning with an opening reception sponsored by Tŷ Cerdd.
Guests will then be invited to experience a specially curated immersive listening experience, offering a chance to encounter the National Youth Choir of Wales’ recorded music in surround-sound in the historic surrounding of Cardiff Bay’s Norwegian Church. The event will conclude with an in-conversation between Nathan and BBC producer and podcaster Ellie Ajao, exploring the inspirations, ideas, and stories behind the album and its creation.
a decade of choral music, with the choirs that shaped me.
i breathe brings together a decade of choral music by award-winning Welsh composer Nathan James Dearden, performed by The Choir of Royal Holloway, Kantos Chamber Choir and National Youth Choir of Wales under Rupert Gough, Ellie Slorach and Tim Rhys-Evans.
The album traces Dearden's development from his teenage years in the National Youth Choir of Wales, through his work as Composer-in-Residence at Royal Holloway, to his recent collaborations with Kantos. Across the 15 tracks, recurring ideas of home, community, ritual, landscape, memory, and breath connect music written for very different circumstances.
THE STORY
Pulling together this album made me notice the threads in my own language.
Textures that envelop you like a hug. Simple moments of collective singing that pack a punch, the way those famed Welsh hymns I grew up with in the Valleys do. Ideas of ritual. Communities. What home means to us. The act of humans coming together. Our breath.
These threads come from real places. I was a teenager in the National Youth Choir of Wales, and that experience made choral music available to me, not something distant or othered but as a home. As Composer-in-Residence with the Choir of Royal Holloway, I learnt my craft by being allowed to make mistakes and to grow. And my recent work with Kantos has shown me how my music lives in the big wide world, carried by voices who owe me nothing yet give everything.
i breathe is a decade of that living and learning. Recorded with the choirs who shaped me, and released with gratitude to every singer who taught me that music is never made alone.
Nathan James Dearden (2026)
Highlights
i breathe: one of Dearden’s most performed and streamed works; a meditation on landscape, stillness and listening.
Three Motets: commissioned by the Presteigne Festival and written for choir and cello, with Maxim Calver, reflecting on the ancient motet tradition and sacred space.
Everything about us: written for the National Youth Choir of Wales, exploring individuality, ritual and collective expression, with rhythmic influences drawn from underground trance music.
Morals + Interludes: five short works exploring memory, identity and the digital traces of contemporary life, developed with members of the National Youth Choirs Fellowship.
RELEASED
6 NOVEMBER 2026 on signum RECORDS
About NathanAward-winning Welsh composer, conductor and educator, Nathan James Dearden's music has been described as “hauntingly beautiful” (Media Wales) and has been performed by the BBC Singers, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Welsh National Opera, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Tippett Quartet, Fidelio Trio, National Youth Choir of Wales and others. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, S4C and RTÉ lyric FM.
Recent recognition includes the 2024 Tlws y Cyfansoddwr (Composer's Medal) at the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol and Best Music Creator at the 2022 Making Music UK Awards. He is also Associate Professor in Music Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London.
