upcoming performances
November 23-24, 2024
Vox Urbane will perform two of Lillie’s pieces, Margaret and The Dusk of Thee, in their Inaugural London Season: Responses concerts in London.
More info and tickets: 23rd November, 24th November
Recent Performances
September 10, 2024 – Kirkwall, Orkney
Elsewhen was performed by Katherine Wren and assembled Nordic Viola players as part of their Sagas and Seascapes, also with the Faroese ensemble Aldubáran, at the Orkney International Science Festival.
July 21, 2024 – London
A Modern Woman in Work, Love, and Life (a song cycle of comic songs for soprano and guitar) was performed by the Juno Duo at King’s Place.
Commissioned by the International Guitar Foundation & Festivals for their 2023-24 season.
More info here.
July 2, 2024 – Warwick
A Bend in the River: An Anthem for Warwick was performed again by c 300 school children at Warwick Schools' Celebration, this time with a new arrangement for ensemble, performed by the Orchestra of the Swan.
June 15, 2024 – London
æfensceop (a new work for choir and saxophone) was premiered by the Covent Garden Chorus and Christian Forshaw at St Pancras New Church (London).
Commissioned by Tori Longdon for the Covent Garden Chorus. Generously supported by a Michael John Trotta Choral Grant.
May 11, 2024 – London
A Modern Woman in Work, Love, and Life (a song cycle of comic songs for soprano and guitar) will be premiered by the Morris-Begg duo at King’s Place.
Commissioned by the International Guitar Foundation & Festivals for their 2023-24 season.
For perusal scores of these pieces, see the Works list.
Previous Performances
November 20, 2023
Elsewhen for sextet was recorded and released by Nordic Viola on their debut album, and helped to inform its evocative title: Elsewhere, Elsewhen.
November 18, 2023 – Bradford
Bradford Festival Choral Society performed two works by Lillie, Now welcome, somer (which was its world premiere) and Christmas Silence.
August 4-6, 2023 – Wilderness Festival
Kind Regards, a comic art song with libretto by Laura Attridge, had several pop-up performances around the outdoor festival site, plus a performance alongside Q&A with Laura in the Shala tent on the 4th August.
July 11, 2023 – Warwick
A new commissioned song cycle for the Warwick: A Singing Town project, called Weaving Warwick’s Stories, was premiered by more than 300 local schoolchildren, who had participated in workshops in the Spring that contributed to the songs’ creation.
February 6, 2023 – Berwick
Recordings of Lillie and Laura Attridge’s song cycle Journey’s Meet were inaugurated at St Michael and All Angels church, Berwick. Visitors can press buttons inside the church door to play the recordings out loud.
December 13, 2022
Christmas Silence was performed by St Edmund’s College, Ware, in their Carol Service.
December 8, 2022
Christmas Silence was performed in London by the Covent Garden Chorus at St. James The Less Church, Pimlico, with the composer in the Soprano section.
December 1-2, 2022 – Glyndebourne
Journeys Meet, a 3-song cycle about Berwick Church with text by Laura Attridge, was performed by pupils from local schools at Glyndebourne, as part of Create Music’s One Voice Festival of Singing.
November 2022
We Are Married, a short, tender a cappella choral work setting excerpts of real love letters from Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, was privately performed at Robin & Rhiannon’s wedding, for which it was commissioned.
August 15-18, 2022 – Edinburgh / Online
Elsewhen was performed by Katherine Wren and assembled Nordic Viola players as part of their Sagas and Seascapes project at the Edinburgh Festival, and in an online concert followed by a Q&A.
Sagas and Seascapes | Nordic Viola blog
December 16-18, 2021 – London – Cancelled
Christmas Silence was scheduled to have its live concert premiere by the Whitehall Choir, conducted by Joanna Tomlinson. However, this concert was cancelled due to the Covid situation.
Further performances were also planned by the Covent Garden Chorus and Wimbledon Choral Society.
December 15, 2021 – Online
Here, part of a new song cycle commissioned by Brighton & East Sussex Music, Glyndebourne, and St Michael & All Angels Church Berwick, was performed digitally as part of the Big Sing 2021. The full song cycle is scheduled for premiere in 2022.
December 11, 2021 – Online
Christmas Silence, commissioned by Choir & Organ magazine in partnership with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, was premiered by the National Youth Chamber Choir as part of the Voces8 Foundation’s Live from London: Christmas 2021 series. The 11 December concert featured The King’s Singers.
December 2, 2021 – Lancaster
already gone got a fourth outing in Echo Vocal Ensemble’s Already Gone tour, this time in Lancaster.
November 29, 2021 – London
The Royal Opera House included Kind Regards in their Recitals at Lunch series, alongside the other song they commissioned through their Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, I am not yours. Kind Regards was performed by Jette Parker Link Artist April Koyejo-Audiger.
November 28, 2021 - Dunblane
Katherine Wren brought her Nordic Viola friends to Dunblane Cathedral for an in-person performance of their Sagas and Seascapes concert, including Lillie’s piece Elsewhen.
November 13, 2021 – York
Chapter House Choir York premiered their commissioned work Comfort before Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem. This concert was originally scheduled in March 2020 and took place in the Nave of York Minster.
November 5-6, 2021 – London
The London Symphony Orchestra put on more performances of their Under 5s concert Elmer’s Walk, which they commissioned Lillie to write music for in 2019.
September 3, 2021 – Online
Elsewhen was included in Nordic Viola’s online concert Sagas and Seascapes for the Orkney International Science Festival, recorded by Katherine Wren and friends with thanks to the RSNO and funders of the project.
August 6, 2021 – Birmingham
already gone got a third outing in Echo Vocal Ensemble’s Already Gone tour, this time in Birmingham.
July 31, 2021 – Manchester
Lillie’s joint-winning work already gone from Echo Vocal Ensemble’s Composition Competition 2019 was performed again in Manchester as part of Echo’s eponymous tour. The Manchester concert included the world premieres of two shortlisted works from the competition by James Brady and Janet Oates.
July 21, 2021 – London
After being selected a joint-winner of their inaugural composers competition, Lillie’s new work already gone was premiered at King’s Place, as part of Echo Vocal Ensemble’s eponymous tour.
July 18, 2021 – London
The National Youth Choir’s Fellowship Octet performed a live concert in St Mary the Virgin Church Lewisham, and as part of their programme they included Lillie’s a cappella choral work Margaret, which was written as part of the NYCGB Young Composers Scheme. Margaret is a setting of a memorial plaque located in St Mary the Virgin Church.
July 17, 2021 – London
Crouch End Festival Chorus performed a live concert on 17th July 2021 in the Alexandra Palace Theatre, and as part of their programme they included Lillie’s a cappella choral work Margaret, written as part of the NYCGB Young Composers Scheme.
Listen to ‘Margaret’ / Buy scores from Stainer & Bell
July 17, 2021 – London & Online
Lillie’s small chamber work Elsewhen was performed in the LSO Soundhub showcase, alongside the new works created by Soundhub Phase II composers Clare Elton and Ruaidhrí Mannion and other pieces by Soundhub Associate composers. (Elsewhen was partially re-arranged for this performance, with additional violin and cello instead of a viola.)
July 5, 2021 – Gloucester
Lillie was commissioned to write a new choral work and a trumpet fanfare for Cheltenham Music Festival, through the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Emerging Composer scheme. Originally scheduled for 2020, The Dusk of Thee was premiered by The Carice Singers on 5th July 2021 as part of the Classical Mixtape concert in Gloucester Cathedral (after Merton College Choir unfortunately had to withdraw due to self-isolation requirements). Lillie’s new trumpet fanfare, A Point of Pride, was also premiered in the concert by trumpeter Aaron Diaz and organist Carleton Etherington.
Read more / Festival programme
March 2021 – London & Online
In partnership with writer & director Laura Attridge, Lillie was commissioned to write a new art song for the Royal Opera House, through their Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. Kind Regards is "darkly satirical...exploring gendered communication, in which a woman is torn between what she wants to say, how she wants to say it, and what is socially demanded".
Premiered as part of ROH’S International Women’s Day programme
January 2020 – ‘Margaret’ and ‘Not Been Found’
Two unaccompanied choral pieces written as part of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain Young Composers Scheme 2018-19, released on NMC recordings.
June 2019 – ‘Frage’
For unaccompanied choir (from the song cycle Vernichtung-Frage-Schrei), premiered by the London Oriana Choir as a shortlisted piece in their five15 competition.
June 2019 – ‘Elmer’s Walk’
For chamber ensemble (vln/cl/bsn/tuba/perc), commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra for their Under 5’s concert.
February 2019 – ‘Consumption’
For chamber ensemble (bsn/tuba/vln1/vln2/vla1/vla2/vlc/cb), written as part of the LSO Soundhub scheme (Phase II) under mentorship from Claudia Molitor.
July 2018 – ‘My Last Duchess’
For clarinets, viola, percussion, poem extracts, and tape, written as part of the LSO Soundhub scheme (Phase I) under mentorship from Chaya Czernowin.
July 2018 – ‘Recall’
For large ensemble, written as part of the LPO Young Composers programme 2017-18 under the mentorship of Sir James MacMillan.
January 2018 – 'AND'
For solo viola, commissioned by Katherine Wren from the RSNO for her Nordic Viola tour in the Shetland Islands, performed again at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, New Auditorium, as part of Katherine's Nordic Viola concert in the RSNO's Chamber Series.
June 2017 – 'Elsewhen'
Premiered by the Assembly Project during the St Magnus Composers' Course 11-21 June 2017, as part of the St Magnus Festival.
A short string quartet piece, 'Fat Lady, Waiting' was workshopped by the Gildas Quartet.
May 2017 – 'Vernichtung-Frage-Schrei'
A new song-cycle for chamber choir, workshopped by the Helsinki Chamber Choir in Mechelen, during the second round of the Tenso Young Composers Workshop programme
After the workshops, Lillie was awarded the Tenso prize for this song-cycle, including a commission for a new work for chamber choir. Read more
January 2017 – ‘vitreous’
For solo piano, recorded by Benjamin Powell as part of Psappha's Composing for Piano scheme
November 2016 – 'Schrei'
For chamber choir, workshopped and performed by Ensemble Aedes at the Tenso Days Composers Workshop in Amsterdam
November 2016 – ‘AND’
For solo viola, commissioned by Katherine Wren from the RSNO for her Nordic Viola tour in the Shetland Islands
July 2016 – ‘wavelet’
For mixed ensemble, workshopped and performed by Ensemble Recherche at the 57th Weimar Masterclass, held at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt
April-May 2016 – ‘remiscipate’
Workshopped by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; premiered in the Season Finale concerts 27-28th May 2016 in Edinburgh and Glasgow
February 2016 – ‘Chrysalis’
Performed with harp, live electronics and tape in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Royal College of Music, in the ‘From the Soundhouse' concert series
January 2016 – ‘Red.’
For sinfonietta, performed at the RSNO centre in Glasgow by the orchestra’s contemporary ensemble Alchemy
October 2015 – ‘Pleura’
Commissioned by cross-cultural ensemble ShivaNova and performed at King’s Place
July 2015 – ‘In the Company of Nightingales’
Commissioned by the Gaudier Ensemble at the 25th anniversary Cerne Abbas Music Festival; for large mixed ensemble and solo baritone, commemorating the centenary of the death of sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
April 2015 – ‘Dormientes Bestia’
For solo great bass paetzold and electronics, performed in the Contemporary Music in Action series at the Royal College of Music. It was part of Rosie Land's winning programme in the 2016 RCM Contemporary Competition.
May 2014 – ‘Qinah’
For SSATB voices, performed by the Ebor Singers in the NCEM Composers’ Competition Final
April 2013 – ‘The Dahomey Amazons Take a Tea Break’
For recorder, Baroque violin, Baroque ‘cello and harpsichord, performed by Florilegium in the NCEM Composers’ Competition Final
December 2012 – ‘Lola on the Beach’
For solo ‘cello, performed at the National Portrait Gallery, as part of a collaboration between RCM composers and the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize
April 2011 – ‘Nineteen-to-Twenty-Hundred AD’
For strings, piano and HighC electronics, performed by the Purcell School’s outreach group IMPULSE at the Southbank Centre, in the Young Xenarchitects project
Banner photograph (c) Piers Rawson, Cerne Abbas Festival 2015