Performer(s): Helen Charlston (mezzo soprano), Alexander Soares (piano)

Event overview

Song Futures is Oxford Lieder’s programme to perform and commission new music. This year we have a dedicated series of eight late-night Song Futures concerts, Tuesdays to Fridays in both weeks of the Festival. They are by no means the only performances of music by living composers in the Festival, nor are they exclusively contemporary music in all cases, but new music is their strong focus.

Tonight, for the first of these, we hear the Isolation Songbook. This songbook for the modern world was commissioned and curated by Helen Charlston (who has recently become a BBC New Generation Artist) during 2020, when she invited 15 composers to respond to their experiences of lockdown. Since then the Songbook has been recorded and widely acclaimed for its rich and inspiring variety. Tonight, we add one more new work, specially commissioned by Oxford Lieder from the brilliant young composer Alex Ho.

To book your tickets for this event, please visit Oxford Lieder Festival 2021’s website by clicking here.

About ‘the way we go’

Setting the beautiful short poem of Katharine Towers of the same title, the way we go, was written as part of The Isolation Songbook project in 2020 for Helen Charlston and Alexander Soares. Full information about the song can be found by clicking here.