The Project
In November 2025, Jelena Makarova (piano), Philippa Mo (violin) and James Gilchrist (tenor) will come together to record an album of music by Sally Beamish and Philip Lancaster for release by Resonus Classics in 2026. All works on the album are being recorded for the first time, and it will be the debut recording of music by Philip Lancaster.
The Music
There are six works being recorded, three by each composer, with common threads running through the programme of trees, winter, and music inspired by poetry. Each composer is represented by sets of songs for voice and violin, works for violin and piano, and pieces for solo piano. There are nods to the poetry of Sylvia Plath, Ursula Vaughan Williams and Tomas Tranströmer in the instrumental works, and song settings of poems by Emily Dickinson and John Greening.
Amongst the works being recorded are Philip Lancaster’s ‘Encroaching Shadows’ — a cycle of 17 haiku for solo piano — and ‘Fallen’ for tenor and violin: a song cycle inspired by Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ‘Along the Field’ that was premièred at the Ludlow English Song Weekend in 2021. In this cycle, specially commissioned poems from John Greening reflect on several felled poplars, responding to work by A. E. Housman, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rudyard Kipling and Ivor Gurney, and to Vaughan Williams himself. You can hear a recording of the first performance of ‘Fallen’ here.
The Process
The recording sessions will take place at Potton Hall, Suffolk, in November 2025. Thereafter, the disc will be edited and mastered during the first half of 2026, before being released in late October 2026. With some of the programme touching on winter, it seemed appropriate for the album to be released on the approach to winter. All supporters of this album will be kept up to date with how the recording develops, with behind-the-scenes snapshots and updates of process and progress.
The Composers
Sally Beamish is an internationally renowned composer of concert and stage music. She began her career as a viola player with the Raphael Ensemble, Academy of St Martins and London Sinfonietta, before moving to Scotland in 1990 to focus on composition. She was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2015, and of the Royal Swedish Academy in 2022. In 2018 she won the Award for Inspiration at the British Composer Awards, and in 2020 was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours. www.sallybeamish.com.
Philip Lancaster has, during the last decade, been steadily emerging as a composer of ‘intense’, ‘powerfully suggestive’, vocal, choral and instrumental works. His music has been performed at the Three Choirs Festival, Ludlow English Song Weekend, St. Marylebone Festival, St. Bride’s Fleet St., by performers including The Bristol Ensemble, Gavin Roberts, Marcus Farnsworth and Libby Burgess, Ted Black and Michael Foyle, and the choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge. One of his short choral works is published by Stainer & Bell. Philip is also a singer, scholar and published poet. www.philiplancaster.com.
The Artists
Jelena Makarova is an award-winning Lithuanian pianist based in London. An alumna of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and London’s Royal Academy of Music, Jelena has performed at some of the world’s finest venues, from London’s Southbank to Carnegie Hall, and both as soloist and in ensemble, including with the BBC Concert Orchestra and The Belfast Ensemble. She appeared in festivals such as London Contemporary Music Festival and Kaunas 2022 European Capital of Culture, and was featured on BBC Radio 3 and Women’s Radio Station. Alongside traditional repertoire, Jelena actively promotes New Music and has premièred works by many emerging and established living composers such as Errollyn Wallen, Richard Causton, Colin Riley, David Lancaster, Hayley Jenkins and Angela Slater. She has recorded Stewart Lane’s complete piano works; and with her ensemble, Trio Sonorité, Jelena also recorded Anthony Esland’s ‘Aurora Dances’, and Rūta Vitkauskaitė’s ‘The Music Shell’, in collaboration with Lithuanian National Radio and Television. With soprano Jessica Summers, Jelena is co-founder of the Living Songs project, promoting contemporary art song.
Philippa Mo studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London and at the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing. Philippa now performs extensively as a chamber musician. She has given concertos and chamber performances all over Europe, including her acclaimed debut at the Wigmore Hall, recitals at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, St John’s, Smith Square, the Deutsches Museum, Munich, the Natural History Museum, Ulaan Bataar, when she was invited as the only British musician to participate as soloist in the International Music Festival of Contemporary Music, Mongolia in 2002. A champion of contemporary music, Philippa has worked closely with many leading British composers, including Gabriel Prokofiev, Robert Fokkens, Cecilia McDowall, Leo Geyer, David Matthews, John McCabe, Jim Aitchison, Wendy Hiscocks and Errollyn Wallen, and has given premieres of their solo and violin duo works. Philippa has released critically acclaimed recordings for the NMC, Dutton and Nimbus labels.
James Gilchrist began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time career in
music in 1996. His extensive concert repertoire has seen him perform in major concert halls throughout the world with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Bernard Labadie, Harry Christophers, Harry Bicket,
Masaaki Suzuki and the late Richard Hickox. A master of English music and of the Baroque, Gilchrist's impressive discography includes recordings of opera (Britten’s ‘Albert Herring’ (title role) and Vaughan Williams ‘A Poisoned Kiss’), oratorio (‘St John Passion’ with the Academy of Ancient Music), and numerous discs of song, including the Finzi song cycle ‘Oh Fair To See’, critically-acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s song cycles, and a disc of Schumann song cycles. More recently he has released ‘Songs of Travel’ for Chandos, alongside Anna Tilbrook, and 100 Years of British Song, a three-part recording project focussing on ’The Art of British Song’, in collaboration with pianist Nathan Williamson, on Somm Recordings. He has recently been appointed chairman of the Association of English Singers and Speakers.
Your Support
The recording has already received some generous support both from individuals and from trusts, including the Hinrichsen Foundation and The Finzi Trust. However, there is still a little way to go to fully secure the recording and release of the disc. Artists and composers alike would be immensely grateful for any support that you might feel able to give, however modest. The wonder of Crowdfunding is that little bits can quickly add up to a substantial amount, which can make an immense difference, helping to cover the cost of the venue, piano and tuning, engineer, artists, travel expenses and artist accommodation, editing and release. Even just a couple of pounds will make a difference. Thank you.