Southwell based composer, Guy Turner has been very fortunate so far during Lock Down, because he has had an unexpected small flood of composing commissions.
Guy, who sings in the Cathedral Choir at Southwell Minster, and is Conductor of Bingham Choral Society, is a composer, mainly of choral music. Although always open to composing commissions, he does not usually expect more than two or three a year. But suddenly, during Lock Down he found he had no less than five commissions to do.
From the end of March until the middle of June he was almost a full-time composer!
Apart from two Christmas Carols for a Hampshire community choir, the commissions were all written with specific celebrations in mind – the 120th anniversary of Bruton School, the 50th anniversary of Phoenix Singers (Taunton) and the celebration concert for the completion of the Heritage Lottery funded ‘Leaves of Southwell’ project at Southwell Minster. All these events are planned for 2021, if Covid conditions allow.
The largest work is a setting for choir and full symphony orchestra of four folk songs – one each from the four countries of the UK, written for Bingham Choral Society’s 50th anniversary concert in November 2021, when the choir will be joined by Mansfield Choral Society (making a total of over 180 voices) and the Nottingham Symphony Orchestra. Taking place in Southwell Minster, the concert will be in the form of a ‘Last Night of the Proms’ Concert. Guy’s Folk song Sequence will be the main item in the second half of the concert, and includes the songs Ca’ The Yowes (Scotland), Sosban Fach (Wales), Carrickfergus (Northern Ireland) and All Around my Hat (England).