Stef Conner: The Composers’ Fund
‘Brutal but harmonically radiant’ (The Guardian), Stef Conner’s music weaves ancient history and folklore into intoxicatingly imaginative contemporary soundscapes that forge channels of empathy and compassion into the deep past. Part singer/composer, part researcher, and part fantasy-weaver, she combines scholarly interpretation of historical materials with sonic reveries shaped by her love of contemporary classical music, jazz, folksong, archaeology, and medieval poetry. A performer with Kathryn Tickell and the Darkening, former member of The Unthanks, singer with Sequentia, and Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize-winning composer, she moves in mysterious borderlands between the classical, (Very) Early, and folk music worlds. Her work has been performed by ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Marian Consort, Queens’ College Choir, Juice, and the Ligeti Quartet.
Her first album The Flood (2012) – ‘songs of romance, eros, lullaby calm, insults, come-ons and darkness… probably unlike anything you’ve heard before…’ (Newsweek) – set Babylonian poetry to new music with Mesopotamian lyres. Her second, Riddle Songs (Delphian, 2020), featured contemporary settings of Old English riddles for voices and medieval lyre. Commended for its ‘mystical enchantment’ (The Scotsman), it was Presto Editor’s Choice and Recordings of the Year finalist.
The Ripple Effect:
The Ripple Effect is an album of secular spiritual choral music exploring uplifting stories of human compassion in the face of tragedy. Driven by a need to find meaning in grief, after losing my beloved mum, I found solace in connecting with voices from the deep past, by setting medieval lyrics, folksongs, ballads, and poems that speak of empathy, connection, love, and loss.
As a composer/choir leader, I specialise in creating ambitious multipart repertoire that is aurally learnable, artistically innovative, and enables leisure-time singers to connect in meaningful ways with British cultural heritage. This funding will enable me to record an album, perform the work live, and make a series of performance and score videos to share it online. Audio from the sessions will be used to create practice resources for singers, which, along with translations, pronunciation guides, and teaching tips, will make this work accessible to the widest possible range of singers, from un-auditioned choirs to professional ensembles.
This project harnesses the power of harmony singing to help people connect with secular spiritual words across the ages that celebrate compassion, tolerance, love, and respect for humanity, even in the darkest of times.