JAM@25 - celebrating 25 years of JAM's remarkable contemporary music commissioning

It seems to be a day for reporting on anniversaries. JAM (the John Armitage Memorial) is celebrating its 25th birthday with a concert at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street on 26 March 2025. The programme includes the very first JAM commission, Timothy Jackson's No Answer from 2002 and the most recent, Joseph Phibbs' Seven Songs of Nature, along with one of their best-known commissions Paul Mealor's Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal from 2010.

The list of commissions (available on the JAM website) makes for fascinating reading including Thea Musgrave's The Voices of Our Ancestors from 2015, Steve Martland's Darwin from 2009, John McCab e's Songs of the Garden, Jonathan Dove's The Far Theatricals of the Day, music by Julian Philips, Philip Cashian, Tarik O'Regan, Paul Patterson, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Judith Bingham (including her 2022 Clarinet Concerto) and of course Paul Mealor (including his 2020 Piano Concerto).

The 26 March concert will be performed by the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge  Onyx Brass,  Simon Hogan (organ),  Claire Seaton (soprano), Philippe Durrant (tenor) & James Emerson (bass) with conductor Sarah MacDonald. The programme will also include new works from JAM’s recent Call for Music

Full details from the JAM website.

JAM on the Marsh: VIRTUAL - highlights from this year's festival free, online, from Beethoven & Mahler to four new operas inspired by Derek Jarman

JAM on the Marsh - Aki Blendis with JAM Festival Orchestra, conductor Michael Bawtree

Following sell-out performances from this year’s JAM on the Marsh festival, set in the mediaeval churches of Romney Marsh, Kent, from 2 - 15 September, JAM on the Marsh: VIRTUAL is free to watch on the JAM website. 

JAM on the Marsh: VIRTUAL consists of a playlist of individual pieces from the concerts by the London Mozart Players (LMP), the JAM Festival Orchestra formed of LMP alongside local players, singers from the Royal College of Music, and the JAM Sinfonia.

The playlist includes LMP in Holst, Delius, Elgar and the world premiere of Jago Thornton's Mumurations, and the JAM Festival Orchestra in Warlock, Beethoven and RVW's The Lark Ascending with 17-year-old soloist Aki Blendis (shortlisted BBC Young Musician of the Year 2022). The hand-picked JAM Sinfonia perform Iain Farrington's reduction of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 and Cameron Biles-Liddell’s Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra with soloist Daniel Shao.

Four resident composers, Toby Anderson, Sam Butler, Roseanna Dunn and Jago Thorton, set libretti by Grahame Davies depicting the life of late Romney Marsh resident Derek Jarman, and the resulting 15-minute operas are performed by singers from the Royal College of Music.

Full details from the JAM website.

JAM on the Marsh: Virtual

JAM on the Marsh has developed into a lively annual music and arts festival in and around the historic churches of Romney Marsh, and always with a focus on new music. This year will be no different, from 7 to 15 August 2020 there will be nine concerts performed in St Leonard's Church, Hythe, Kent and there will be three exhibitions. But without a live audience.

This year the festival is JAM on the Marsh: Virtual and all nine concerts will be live-streamed and the three exhibitions will be featured on-line.

Highlights of the festival include the premiere of Paul Mealor's Piano Concerto with soloist John Frederick Hudson and the London Mozart Players, conducted by Michael Bawtree [read my interview with Paul from March 2020 where he talks about the writing of this concerto], Gabriel Faure's Requiem in an intimate performance with the Gesualdo Six and the London Mozart Players conducted by Owain Park, interspersed with new poetry by Grahame Davies, and a programme of music by contemporary British jazz composers written for Onyx Brass including music by Jason Rebello, Kenny Wheeler, Laurence Cottle, Colin Skinner, Trish Clowes, Mark Nightingale.

Other concerts include the Gesualdo Six in music by Alison Willis, Roxanna Panufnik, Richard Rodney Bennett and a premiere by Joanna Ward alongside Byrd, Tallis and Gesualdo, soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones and pianist Anna Tilbrook in Jonathan Dove's Nights not spent alone and music by Madeleine Dring, Elgar and Britten, an organ recital from Daniel Cook, pianist Rachel Fryer in Bach's Goldberg Variations alongside music by Samuel Becker, Julian Broughton, Nicola Lefanu, Michael Finnissy, Alison Kay, and Fillu a musical exploration of the relationship between Eugenie Schumann (daughter of Robert and Clara) and the singer Marie Fillunger.

Performers will make the annual pilgrimage to the mediaeval churches of Kent’s Romney Marsh, to present the concerts adhering to strict and rigorous social distancing guidelines and safety measures. Each concert will be recorded ‘as live’ behind closed doors.

There are also three exhibitions on-line, Tristan Fewings, Carsten Birkebaek and Susan Pilcher.

The festival is being presented entirely free of charge, and your support is invited to help cover the costs, visit JAM's donate page.

Full details from the festival website.

JAM on the Marsh

JAM's now annual festival JAM on the Marsh starts on Thursday 6 July with ten days of music both new and old, visual art, spoken work and more on Romney Marsh, curated by Daniel Cook. The Mousai Singers, conductor Daniel Cook, perform Bach, Mendelssohn, Poulenc, Rheinberger, Stanford and RVW, Julian Perkins and Sounds Baroque perform Handel, Bach, Albinoni and Judith Bingham, and there is more Judith Bingham from London Mozart Players, conductor Daniel Cook. Oboist Michal Rogalski is joined by guitarist Michael Poll for a programme of music influenced by Latin America

The BBC Singers, conducted by Daniel Cook, with Jamie Walton (cello), give the premiere of Voices of Vimy which remembers the Battle of Vimy Ridge where Canada suffered its greatest losses, and the new piece has two composers, Tom Harrold (British) and Stuart Beatch (Canadian) with words by Graham Davies (Welsh). The new piece is performed alongside music by Elgar, Finzi, Howells, Rutter and Tavener.

There is a selection of art exhibitions, church tours, Shakespeare's Hamlet from Changeling Theatre, and poetry readings including Jonty Driver reciting his sequence The Journey Back, interspersed with Corelli's La Follia played by Peter Fields.

Looking ahead: JAM 2017, nine living composers

Paul Patterson

JAM kicks off its 2017 season with its annual contemporary showcase, as well as celebrating composer Paul Patterson's 70th birthday. As part of the Brandenburg Choral Festival on 23 March 2017 at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, Dingle Yandell (baritone), the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Onyx Brass, Simon Hogan (organ) and Michael Bawtree (conductor) will perform music by nine living composers, Adam Gorb, Thomas LaVoy, Paul Patterson, Alison Willis, Jack Oades, Mark Cotham, Max Charles Davies, David Ho-Yi Chan and Mark Bowler.

Ten years ago JAM commissioned Adam Gorb's Thoughts Scribbled on a Blank Wall, and the work will be the centre piece of the concert on 23 March. It is a powerful work evoking the experience of journalist John McCarthy who in the 1980s was held hostage in the Lebanon for five years. Another JAM commission, Thomas LaVoy's O Great Beyond, a setting of Rabindranath Tagore's The Gardner, will receive its London premiere, whilst Paul Patterson's 70th birthday will be celebrated with a performance of his When Music Sounds. Patterson's association with JAM dates back to 2005 when they commissioned The Fifth Continent.

Each year JAM has a call for scores and this year they are performing six pieces which came from the submissions last year (when they received their biggest number of submissions ever at 130), with pieces by Alison Willis, Jack Oakes, Mark Cotham, Max Charles Davies, David Ho-Yi Chan and Mark Bowler.


Further information from the JAM website.

JAM on the Marsh

JAM is back in July with another JAM on the Marsh festival on Romney Marsh, with concerts and events between 9 July and 19 July 2015, curated by composer Paul Mealor. And for those not able to get to the area, one or two key concerts are being done in London too. 

Contemporary music plays a strong role on the festival, with the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College and Onyx Brass, conductor Nicholas Cleobury,  performing Paul Patterson's The Fifth Continent and giving the premiere of Thea Musgrave's The Voices of Our Ancestors which is a festival commission and is Thea Musgrave's first work for choir and ensemble since 1996. The concert, at All Saints, Lydd (11/7/2015) also includes music by Paul Mealor, Eric Whitacre, and Morten Lauridesen. And the ensemble Animatronic (organists Michael Bonaventure and Huw Morgan) will be exploring music for organ and live electronics with music by Michael Bonaventure and Huw Morgan (St Mary in the Marsh, 18/7/2015). The Mousai Singers, conductor Daniel Cook, team up Durufle's Requiem (with organist Simon Hogan) with James MacMillan's Tenebrae Responses and music by Faure, Parry and RVW. (All Saints, Lydd, 18/7/2015)

Other music includes Sounds Baroque directed by Julian Perkins, with soprano Claire Seaton and counter-tenor Andrew Radley in Bach and Pergolesi, organist Daniel Cook playing Brahms, Whitlock, Alain, Heiller and Schumann, and the Festival Chamber Orchestra of Canterbury, conductor Anthony Halstead, in Mozart, Albinoni, Bach, Corelli, Morricone ad Walton. Other events include a family concert as part of JAM's education project Singing Playgrounds, a visit from Sabotage Theatre, Jonty Driver reading his poem Requiem, art and photography exhibitions, and a Romney Marsh Churches tour.

For those stuck in London, the chapel choir of Selwyn College performs its Patterson and Musgrave programme on Thursday 9 July, at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, and the Mousai Singers performs its Durufle and MacMillan programme on Thursday 19 July at St Bride's Church.

Full details are available on the JAM website.

The Yonghy Bongy Bo

Giles Swayne
Photo credit Alice Williamson

Swayne, McCabe, Handel; Mousai Singers, Simon Hogan, Daniel Cook, Sky Ingram, Rebecca Afonwy-Evans, Ashley Catling, Giles Underwood; JAM at the City of London Festival, St Bride's Church
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jul 16 2014
Star rating: 4.0
English premiere of Giles Swayne's Lear setting from this dynamic young choir

The final concert in JAM's season at the City of London Festival included a new commission and a revisiting of an older one. At St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street on Wednesday 16 July 2014, the Mousai Singers, Onyx Brass, organist Simon Hogan, soprano Sky Ingram, mezzo-soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones, tenor Ashley Catling and baritone Giles Underwood with conductor Daniel Cook gave the first English performance of Giles Swayne's The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo (the same performers had premiered the work in St. David's), along with John McCabe's Songs of the Garden (a JAM commission from 2004) and Handel's Coronation Anthems. Both Giles Swayne and John McCabe were present, and the performance of Songs of the Garden was dedicated to McCabe whose 75th birthday it is this year.

Proceedings opened with a crisp performance of Handel's The King Shall Rejoice, with the choir performing with admirable firmness and discreet brilliance. The Mousai Singers are a group of young singers at the start of their professional career, most have been choristers in cathedrals and are now studying. They make a bright, forward and admirably focussed sound. They gave Handel's anthem a sense of sober rejoicing, along with some nicely firm and even passagework.

The Angel of Mons - premiere of Judith Bingham's oboe concerto

Red Note Ensemble
photo credit Wattie Cheung

Bingham, Adams, Barber, RVW; Michal Rogalski, Red Note Ensemble; JAM at the City of London Festival, St. Andrew's Church, Holborn.
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jul 11 2014
Star rating: 4.0
World premiere of Judith Bingham's oboe concerto in a dramatic and characterful programme

Michal Rogalski

For the second of their City of London Festival concerts, JAM presented the Scottish Red Note Ensemble in a programme of music for strings and oboe, which included the world premiere of Judith Bingham's Oboe Concerto: The Angel of Mons alongside Bingham's 2012 JAM commission, The Hythe, plus RVW's Oboe Concerto and music by John Adams and Samuel Barber. Red Note Ensemble, leader Jacqueline Shave, performed at St Andrew's Church, Holborn, London EC4A 3AB on Friday 11 July. The solo oboist was Michal Rogalski.

The concert opened with Judith Bingham's Oboe Concerto: The Angel of Mons which was commissioned by JAM. The work is written for solo oboe and small string ensemble (Red Note performed with 11 players). Bingham heard the London-based Polish oboist Michal Rogalski performing with Red Note last year, which gave her the idea for writing for this combination of forces. The work is inspired by the legend of the Angel of Mons, in which an Angel appeared to British soldiers during the Retreat from Mons and helped save the allies from the German forces. The Battle of Mons and the Retreat from Mons were the first encounters between the Germans and the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War.

JAM on the Marsh

St Augustine's Church, Brookland

This year, in addition to presenting a concerts in London as part of the City of London Festival, JAM is organising a festival, JAM on the Marsh, centred around the historic churches of Romney Marsh. As ever, JAM's programmes centre on contemporary music with works by James, Weeks, Judith Bingham, John Adams, John McCabe, Giles Swayne, Colin Riley, but there are plenty of other works in the mix too providing a series of attractive programmes.

Things kick off with the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge conducted by Sarah MacDonald performing Rachmaninov's Vespers and music by James Weeks (9 July at St Bartholomew the Great, London; 10 July at St Augustine, Brookland, TN29 9QR). Then the Red Note Ensemble, led by Jacqueline Shave, is joined by oboist Michal Rogalski for the premiere of Judith Bingham's Oboe Concerto along with RVW's Oboe Concerto and a programme of music for strings by John Adams and Samuel Barber as Judith Bingham's The Hythe which was originally commissioned by JAM (11 July at St. Andrew's Holborn, London;' 12 July at All Saints Church, Lydd, TN29 9JU).

Paul Mealor premiere

For their concert at this year's City of London Festival, JAM presented a fascinating trio of choral works at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street on 2 July 2012. JAM (the John Armitage Memorial) supports the development of new music and the concert included the English premiere Paul Mealor's new dramatic cantata, commissioned jointly by JAM, the St. David's Festival and the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union. Written for choir, children's choir, soloists, brass and organ, the work was performed by the BBC Singers, Cumnor House School Choristers, St David's Cathedral Choir, soprano Claire Seaton, bass Giles Underwood, Onyx Brass and organist Daniel Cook conducted by Nicholas Cleobury, substantially the same forces which premiered the work at the St. David's Festival. The other works in the programme were Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, his cantata setting texts by the 18th century poet Christopher Smart, and James MacMillan's Cantos Sagrados, his fusion of sacred and secular texts dealing with political repression in Latin America.

JAM Yesterday - JAM Tomorrow

JAM's forthcoming concert in London on 21 March celebrates the composers with whom they have developed strong relationships and the composers with whom they are developing relationships. JAM Influences will see music by Jonathan Dove, Judith Bingham, Giles Swayne, Paul Patterson, Paul Mealor, Phillip Cook and Matthew Martin performed alongside works from JAM's recent Call for Music. The performers will be the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Daniel Cook (organ) and Nicholas Cleobury (conductor). The concert takes place at St. Brides Church, Fleet Street on 21 March 2012.

JAM in Scotland

Judith Bingham

In February, JAM (John Armitage Memorial) is returning to Scotland with concerts in St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow, visiting Glasgow for the first time. There are two programmes, one for strings done in collaboration with Red Note, one of Scotland's leading contemporary programmes, and a choral programme which combines choirs from St. Andrew's, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The concerts will commemorate Judith Bingham's 60th birthday last year, Britten's centenary, the 20th anniversary of Kenneth Leighton's death as well as performing contemporary works by Rory Boyle, Julian Philips and Phillip Cooke.