Edinburgh Mass

One of Britain's foremost composers, after three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, Gabriel Jackson went on to study composition with Richard Blackford and John Lambert at the Royal College of Music. Particularly acclaimed for his choral works, his liturgical pieces are in the repertoires of most of Britain's cathedral and collegiate choirs and he is a frequent collaborator with the leading professional groups of the world. From 2010-2013 he was Associate Composer to the BBC Singers. In 2014 his hour-long The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, commissioned for the 750th anniversary of Merton College, Oxford, was premiered in its chapel. May 2015 saw the premiere at the Latvian National Opera of Spring Rounds for soprano, choir and orchestra, commissioned by the Riga-based youth choir Kamer for their 25th anniversary. He was recently commissioned by The Marian Consort to write Stabat Mater to mark their 10th anniversary.

This (unaccompanied) mass is one of his most striking compositions to date . . . all is integrated into a personal and increasingly purposeful idiom, typically contemplative but characteristically warm, radiant, even ecstatic. Edinburgh Mass is a dramatic and virtuoso piece, not least to perform, written in a language which most choirs and (one hopes) their audiences will find rewarding and effective, whether in a concert or in the liturgy.

• Kyrie ; Gloria ; Sanctus & Benedictus ; Agnus Dei