Bob Chilcott: Canticles of Light NFM Choir & Agnieszka Franków- Żelazny

• Bob Chilcott (b. 1955): Canticles of Light:
• 1 Chilcott: Canticles of Light: I. Te lucis ante terminum 04:19
• 2 Chilcott: Canticles of Light: Ii. Christe, qui, splendour et dies 06:56
• 3 Chilcott: Canticles of Light: Iii. O nata lux de lumine 04:42
• Move Him Into the Sun:
• 4 Chilcott: Move Him Into the Sun: I. Song of Songs 04:55
• 5 Chilcott: Move Him Into the Sun: Ii. Spring Offensive 04:36
• 6 Chilcott: Move Him Into the Sun: Iii. Apologia pro Poemate meo 04:01
• 7 Chilcott: Move Him Into the Sun: Iv. Futility 07:56
• 8 Chilcott: Move Him Into the Sun: V. Winter Song 04:35
• Cecilia McDowall (b. 1951): Standing as I Do Before God:
• 9 McDowall: Standing as I Do Before God 06:08
• Francis Pott (b. 1957): Lament:
• 10 Pott: Lament 04:19
• James MacMillan (b. 1959): A Child's Prayer:
• 11 MacMillan: A Child's Prayer 04:07
• Bob Chilcott: Sing the Colour of Peace:
• 12 Chilcott: Sing the Colour of Peace 03:42
• Total Runtime 01:00:16

Info for Bob Chilcott: Canticles of Light

“Darkness to light is a theme which continues to engage artists, musicians, philosophers and thinkers through time, and this theme, coupled with thoughts of remembrance, hope, redemption and acceptance is the thread that ties together all the music performed on this recording” (Bob Chilcott)

Featuring celebrated composers including Cecilia McDowall, Francis Pott and James MacMillan each work has been carefully selected by conductor and professor Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny, with the final track written especially for the NFM Choir. Hailed by The Observer as ‘a contemporary hero of British choral music’, composer and conductor Bob Chilcott has enjoyed a lifelong connection with singing and choirs. As a composer he has a large catalogue of music published by Oxford University Press that reflects his broad view of musical styles and genres.

NFM Choir
Instrumentalists of the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic
Agnieszka Frankow-Zelazny, conductor

Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny
is one of the most recognized choral conductors in Poland.

She is a Titular Professor of Musical Arts, PhD and an active teacher. She studied voice and conducting at the Academies of Music in Wrocław and Bydgoszcz. She is also a biologist, a graduate of the University of Wrocław and a culture manager with a diploma from the University of Economics in Kraków, as well as MBA studies at the Collegium Humanum at the Central School of Management. She has recorded 22 albums and won over 70 individual and ensemble awards, some of which she received during her studies: 1st prize and two special prizes in the National Competition for Choir Conducting (2004), 1st place in the Lower Silesian Competition Primus Inter Pares (2004). For her artistic and academic activities, she received the Honorary Badge of Merit for Polish Culture (2008), the Wrocław Music Prize (2010), Internauts’ Award in the competition Person of the Year 2011, Award of the Polish Academy of Sciences Iuvenes Wratislaviae (2012), the Bronze Medal for Merit to Polish Culture – Gloria Artis (2014), as well as Fryderyk 2017 and 2019. In 2018, the project Choral Academy, which she programmed, was nominated for the Corypheus of Polish Music Award. In 2018, the project Choral Academy, which she programmed, was nominated for the Corypheus of Polish Music Award.

From 2000–2014, she led the Medici Cantantes the Choir of the Medical University in Wrocław, which she founded. Winning with it the highest prizes in choir competitions in Poland and internationally; she elevated the ensemble to the league of the best university choirs in Poland. From 2006–2021 she was Artistic Director of the National Forum of Music Choir, building it from the very beginning according to her own vision of a “choir of soloists”. She is the originator and Artistic Director of a nationwide educational project established in 2013 under the name of the Polish National Youth Choir.

In January 2015 she was appointed Programme Director of the Choral Academy – a project financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport. Its main objective is to support the development of nearly 300 Polish children’s and youth choirs financially and substantively, organising workshops, concerts, competitions conferences and publishing numerous methodological and repertoire materials. From 2013–2016 she was Curator of Music for the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016, co-implementing an artistic programme consisting of several hundred musical events.

Booklet for Bob Chilcott: Canticles of Light