NMC Recordings Ltd has provided £1,425 of match funding
Fundraising for Josephine Stephenson's debut album
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
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Aim
We are recording the debut album of amazing composer Josephine Stephenson. Help us make this ambitious project a reality!
A composer of “music to arrest the ears and stop the heart” (The Times), most recently Josephine was commissioned to write a piece for the First Night of the Proms. This album is the perfect moment to follow up that exposure and take the next step.
The album will collect a wide range of Josephine’s work and amplify her reach, helping her music gain attention and secure broadcasts, reviews and future opportunities.
Hear from Josephine below:
About 'Into the Wreck'
This campaign is focused on recording one of the album’s key pieces, 'Into the Wreck' for Choir and Narrator. ‘Into the Wreck’ sets the title poem from Adrienne Rich’s poetry collection 'Diving Into the Wreck', for which Rich won the National Book Award for Poetry. Rich refused the award for herself, instead sharing it with Audre Lorde and Alice Walker on behalf of all women “whose voices have gone and still go unheard in a patriarchal world”.
As Josephine says, “with 'Into the Wreck' I wanted to revisit Rich’s beautiful title piece and expand on this idea, making space for the voices of female writers from different places and times whose feelings align remarkably with those of Rich’s diver. Nearly half a century later, Rich's poem retains its freshness and urgency, and the need to listen to these unheard voices remains as strong as ever.”
We are delighted that Tenebrae, who commissioned the work and performed it first in 2021, will be returning for the recording. Celebrated actor Juliet Stevenson is provisionally set to be the Narrator. The first performances of Into the Wreck received glowing reviews, with The Times calling it a “striking” piece, generating “an impression of weightlessness in the listener”, and describing Josephine’s music as “hugely evocative and always beautiful”, while Opera Today said Josephine “achieves miracles of literary and musical cohesion."
Josephine Stephenson in rehearsal with Tenebrae and Juliet Stevenson
How can I help?
Creating an album of this kind is expensive. Your money will pay for the singers, recording engineers and others involved in the project, helping ensure they are all paid properly for their time.
The good news is that some very generous supporters have already promised £6,000 towards this project. We still need to raise a further £6,000 to cover all our costs - and you can help by donating through this Crowdfunder.
If we are lucky enough to beat our target, we will use this additional money to support the rest of the album costs, which will reach over £20,000 in total.
Rewards
- Anyone who gives £25 or more will be thanked by having their name printed in the CD booklet for the album.
- Anyone who gives £50 or more will receive a copy of the album signed by Josephine Stephenson.
- Anyone who gives £250 or more will be invited to a special launch event in London.
- Anyone who gives £500 or more will receive a signed copy of the score for 'Into The Wreck'
- Supporters who give over £1,000 will be invited to attend the recording session for 'Into the Wreck' (planned for early 2027)
Tenebrae, Josephine Stephenson and Juliet Stevenson at London’s Wigmore Hall
What else is on the album?
The album will show a range of Josephine’s output from intimate chamber works to a large instrumental piece as well as the great choral sound of Tenebrae’s ‘Into the Wreck’
Other works on the album will include the instrumental 'In Time Like Air', with 10:10 Ensemble (part of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), 'Rest(e)' for mezzo-soprano, piano and cello, and 'Enero' for solo guitar (Laura Snowden).
About Josephine Stephenson
Josephine Stephenson is a British-French composer working across different genres and scenes. Described as "a bewitching combination of dissonance and sweet-toned cantabile" (Bachtrack), her music has been commissioned by institutions such as the BBC, Radio France, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and Spitalfields Music, among others. It has been performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Aurora Orchestra, Tenebrae, tenor Allan Clayton, cellist Nicolas Alstaedt and guitarist Laura Snowden.
Stephenson’s work is nurtured by an interest in investigating the intersections of so-called ‘high’ and ‘popular’ cultures and creating bridges between different musical worlds. She enjoys regular collaborations with film and theatre makers (La Raffinerie, FellSwoop, L’Éventuel Hérisson Bleu) as well as songwriters and bands (Damon Albarn, Arctic Monkeys, Daughter and Black Country, New Road, to name a few).
She was composer in residence at the Opéra Grand Avignon from 2021 to 2023, and that same year won an Ivor Novello Composer Award. In 2026, her piece That the sunrise not leave us unmoved for chorus and orchestra, was premiered at the First Night of the Proms, conducted by Dalia Stasevska.
"Stephenson’s music, hugely evocative and always beautiful" - The Times
"A wealth of techniques permeates this twenty-minute score, in which Stephenson achieves miracles of literary and musical cohesion. Tenebrae brought its underwater world vividly to life, its ever-changing sonorities leaving a deep impression. Stephenson is clearly a figure to watch." - Opera Today
NMC Recordings Ltd (Charity No. 328052)
NMC Recordings is the home of recorded contemporary classical music in the UK and Ireland. We are both a music charity and a record label, and we exist to support and release music by outstanding British and Irish contemporary composers. Active since 1989, NMC has released over 300 albums reflecting a dizzying range of composers, performers, sounds and styles that have shaped contemporary composition during that time.
Josephine’s album will be part of NMC’s Debut Disc series - these are first portrait albums of music by composers who have already written outstanding music but haven't yet had that brought together in a commercial release.
Josephine Stephenson © Daragh Soden
Thank you
If you have read this far, we hope you will make a donation to help us see this fantastic project through to completion….
…and if you make a donation we will be tremendously grateful.
NMC is grateful for the support of
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 6th November 2026 at 12:00pm