The Breath of Life - a new choral album by Matthew Coleridge
In June 2025 I will record a second album of my choral music with The Choir of Royal Holloway and orchestra Southern Sinfonia.
Titled 'The Breath of Life', this music is a vibrant celebration of life, creation and the natural world, setting inspiring and powerful texts by writers including Kahlil Gibran, Rabindranath Tagore, Albert Einstein, John Muir and Christopher Smart.
The album will also feature a 15-minute work for choir and solo cello, Lux Aeterna.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER - MATTHEW COLERIDGE
"A great force for good in the choral world" (Alexander Armstrong, Classic FM)
Matthew Coleridge is one of the UK's most exciting emerging composers. His music is regularly performed around the world, and his "sublime" choral work Requiem has been dubbed a "modern choral classic" (Classic FM) and reached the top 50 of Classic FM's Hall of Fame in 2024.
A self-taught composer, he combines instantly memorable melodies with stunningly beautiful harmony, to create deeply moving and emotive music.
His ongoing choral workshop tour of the UK, "Requiem in a Day" engages with hundreds of choral singers each year, giving amateur singers of all ages an opportunity to perform in some of our finest cathedrals and abbeys.
THE CHOIR OF ROYAL HOLLOWAY
Widely regarded as on of the finest choirs in the UK, the 24 choral scholars of The Choir of Royal Holloway, directed by Rupert Gough, regularly receive outstanding reviews for their performances, broadcasts and recordings.
WHY I NEED YOUR HELP
My first album with The Choir of Royal Holloway, 2023's Requiem, met with critical acclaim, with 5 star reviews in BBC Music Magazine, and was selected as Classic FM's album of the week. It also touched the hearts of thousands of listeners and singers around the world.
However, in this age of music streaming, it is virtually impossible for an independent classical album even to cover the costs of production.
The album will feature over forty of the most talented choral singers and orchestral players the UK has to offer, and the very best, award-winning production team in the business. As you can imagine, making an album of this extraordinary quality is an expensive art.
The total cost of this project - including musicians’ fees, venue hire, recording, editing and mixing, filming live videos alongside the recording, and releasing and promoting the album - will be a little over £30,000.
I will be contributing a sizeable amount of this myself, but without your help this glorious music will not be heard.
Please take a moment to listen to this wonderful choir in action, and let's bring this music to life!