Living Voices

"Tonal, tuneful, technically accessible, harmonically palliative: James Whitbourn's music ticks many of the boxes beloved by choral societies...James Jordan directs the Princeton-based choir with grip and sensitivity; he's notably successful in keeping the singers firmly focused throughout all the quiet, restrained music, where concentration and vocal support can so easily weaken."
(BBC Music)

"Here's another welcome collection from a truly original communicator in modern British choral music. Whitbourn's interest in the compelling combination of voices and the soprano saxophone dominates here...The Princeton choir is directed by James Jordan with precision and poise"
(The Observer)

"Those enchanted by the mystic minimalism of John Tavener or Henryk Górecki will rejoice to discover a younger exponent of this soporific style. James Whitbourn is a 46-year-old Brit, who writes choral music so sweet and slow that my brain has only just regained consciousness. Yet it's cleverly crafted and beautifully performed by the Westminster Williamson Voices, with lots of vaguely Arabic saxophone melismas by Jeremy Powell."
(The Times)

James Whitbourn is known for his 'boundless breadth of choral imagination' (The Observer) resulting in compositions of brilliance and power. His extraordinary work for choir, saxophone and organ, Son of God Mass, receives a new recording from the young voices of one of Westminster Choir College of Rider University's fi nest chamber choirs under the leading American choral conductor James Jordan. It is heard alongside a collection of première recordings of other works associated with life and death, including the Requiem canticorum and Living Voices, a work to commemorate the dead of 9/11 with a poem by Andrew Motion.