Our special anniversary concert - Together in Unity - features the world premiere of a new choral work by Ivor Novello Award-winning composer Joanna Marsh.
We had the pleasure of speaking to Joanna ahead of the concert on Saturday 17th May to learn more about the inspiration behind her piece and what it means to contribute to our rich choral music tradition.
1. The story of how Leonard Bernstein was commissioned to write Chichester Psalms is a special part of the Cathedral’s and contemporary history of choral music. Can you tell us how your commission came about and what was your initial reaction to being part of such a significant occasion?
I was approached about the commission two years ago. At that point, I only knew two things: that it would mark the 950th anniversary of the Diocese, and that Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms would be on the programme, so they were looking for a partner piece to sit somewhere within the concert. I immediately felt the weight of the invitation. I’d heard the Cathedral Choir’s recent broadcasts and recordings and knew they would be a joy to write for. It’s always exciting to tread new ground, and I hadn’t yet written for choir, organ, harp and percussion in combination, so this felt like a fresh and significant creative opportunity.
2. Your piece takes inspiration from Psalm 90, which speaks of unity and harmony. How have its themes influenced the way you’ve set it to music?
Psalm 90 holds a deep perspective on time, mortality, and the human condition, there’s grandeur, but also vulnerability. I selected verses that I felt spoke to our current moment and to the occasion of the 950th anniversary: verses that suggest both continuity and fragility and ask how we choose to use the time we’re given. Musically, that led me toward a structure that allowed space for reflection, with harmonic shifts and pacing shaped closely by the movement of the text. The psalm’s emotional arc, its movement from solemnity to wisdom and finally to a kind of quiet affirmation gave me the architecture for the whole piece.
3. Together in Unity places your work alongside Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, a piece that has become deeply embedded in choral repertoire. Did Bernstein’s music have any impact on your approach, or did you consciously seek to create something contrasting?
I am very aware of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, of course, but I didn’t want to echo or respond to it directly. It’s such a bold and distinctive piece that I felt it was important to write something with its own voice and temperament. The psalm I set, Psalm 90, is very different in tone: more austere, more philosophical, with a different kind of gravity. That naturally shaped a different emotional landscape, where the pacing comes through in shifting harmonies, evolving textures, and a more contemplative intensity. The shared forces, choir, organ, harp and percussion offered a useful point of connection, but I leaned into contrast, focusing more on line, nuance, and harmonic colour than on exuberance.
4. When composing a piece like this, where do you begin? Do you start with the text, a particular musical idea or an emotional response to the themes?
It always begins with the text. I read it many times and spend a while living with it before writing a note. Psalm 90 is complex in tone. It shifts between awe, lament, wisdom and humility. I allowed those turns in the language to shape the flow and contour of the piece. Often, a particular line will give me an opening, a sense of how the piece wants to begin and from there, everything unfolds in relation to that first gesture.
5. How does writing for a space like Chichester Cathedral - so rich in history and choral tradition - shape the way you think about the piece?
The space becomes part of the music. You’re always writing with the building in mind: its resonance, its scale, its acoustic warmth. It affects everything from the pacing of harmonic changes to the spacing of vocal textures and the choice of instrumental colour and density of texture. There are practical considerations too, how the organ will carry, how the harp will balance with it, how the percussion and the choir will project across the space. But beyond that, there’s the knowledge that the building has absorbed centuries of sound, and you’re adding your voice into that continuum.
6. Your work will be premiered by the Cathedral Choir as part of Chichester’s 950th anniversary celebrations. How does it feel to contribute to such a long-standing musical legacy?
It’s a rare and humbling thing to be invited into a tradition that stretches so far back. Choral music has been part of life at Chichester for generations, and anniversaries like this one draw attention not only to the past, but to the vitality of that tradition in the present. It’s a wonderful thing to celebrate with new music, to keep the tradition alive by adding something fresh to it. I’m grateful to have been asked to be part of this moment in the Cathedral’s musical story.
Joanna Marsh’s new work will receive its premiere at Together in Unity on Saturday 17th May, performed within our ancient and atmospheric Nave. The concert not only celebrates 950 years of worship and music but also looks ahead - renewing our commitment to choral music.
Tickets for the Together in Unity - anniversary concert are available to purchase here.
To support the long-term sustainability of the Cathedral’s musical tradition, find out more about our match-funding campaign here.
Joanna Marsh Biography
Joanna Marsh, the award-winning British composer who has divided her time between the UK and Dubai since 2007, has been hailed by The Guardian as "one of today’s leading composers for the voice." She has an extensive catalogue of music, including commissions from some of the world’s most highly respected ensembles and choirs.
January 2025 saw the release of Joanna’s most recent album, A Plastic Theatre, an anthology of recent works is centred around her 20-minute commission for the Liverpool Philharmonic. The album also features performances by VOCES8, I Fagiolini, Stile Antico, and The Lyons’ Mouth with music exploring humanity’s fraught relationship with the natural world, offering glimmers of hope and renewal in times of crisis.
Other recent highlights include her 20-minute BBC Radio 3 commission SEEN, performed by the BBC Singers at the BBC Proms 2023 with Sofi Jeannin conducting and electronics created by Glen Scott. Her 2021 choral piece All Shall Be Well, commissioned for ORA Singers, won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Choral Music in 2022.
Joanna’s BBC Radio 3 commission Flare was performed at the BBC Proms Dubai in 2022 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and is the title track of her 2020 solo album Flare, which features music performed by the BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, and The Choir of Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2021, The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, released an album of her music for choir organ and viol consort called Sanctifica Nos. to mark the conclusion of her five-year composer residency.
Her life in the Middle East has led to a number of other unique musical opportunities, including composing an orchestral work to celebrate the opening of the Burj Khalifa and a fanfare for Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Abu Dhabi.
Joanna Marsh studied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where she was an organ scholar, and at the Royal Academy of Music. She studied composition with Richard Blackford and Judith Bingham.