December is a busy month of performances across the UK, with several of my Christmas pieces being performed. The majority of the performances will be given by The Sixteen, who will give six performances of my setting of There is no rose (2013) in Basingstoke, Gateshead, Oxford, Cardiff and London.

If you are a lover of Classical music, or British music, or twentieth-century culture it probably hasn’t escaped your attention that this year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of Britain’s most celebrated and venerated composers. There have been many, many concerts, books, lectures, radio shows and newspaper articles celebrating this anniversary and it is to be imagined that Vaughan Williams himself would have thoroughly approved (if maybe a little bashfully) of this festival of his life and music (I’m sure the RVW Trust that administers his legacy will be equally in approval). As with all these big anniversary celebrations it is a great time to revel in the achievements of one of the nation’s favourite sons, but it also a good time to take stock of their reputation and what this means to composers working today, myself included.

November is a busy month of performances and recordings with the highlight being the culmination of my sabbatical piano project. This recording, for the Prima Facie label, will be made by Duncan Honeybourne and will feature many new works from the past two years, including the Folksongs and other pieces on the theme of transfiguration. The Marian Consort will record my work Canticum Mariae Virginis (2021) for Linn Records for release in 2023 on the 15-17 November. The University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir will perform my The Mystery of Light (2019) on the 19th and the month ends with The Sixteen giving the first of five performances of There is no rose (2013) in Basingstoke on the 29th.

October is an exciting and busy month which finally sees me able to make some first performances, and foreign performances at that! The month begins with the US premiere of Ave Maria mater Dei (2017) by Khorikos in New York (8/10) followed by the premiere of Al is Alles Stil (2022) by Capella Vocale in Leiden, Netherlands (which I’ll be attending) on the following day. The same day sees a performance of my Hymn Tune Prelude on Rhosymedre by Matthew McVey in Aberdeenshire.

It was really nice to hear this week that I had been promoted to Professor of Composition at the University of Aberdeen. I’m currently suffering from a terrible bout of Imposter Syndrome, but hopefully it will pass soon. A strange accolade as I am the first person in my family to go to university, but one I’ll take nontheless.

July sees another performance of The World on Fire (2015), this time by the Micklegate Singers in York, conducted by Nicholas Carter. At the same time, the Caritas Chamber Choir (who have been hugely supportive of my music this year) and Benedict Preece will record a handful of my works on a new recording, including the Four Marian Antiphons (2019-20) and three Christmas pieces. The choir will also give the French premiere of my Ave Regina Caelorum in Lille Cathedral at the end of the month.

June continues the increase in performances in our post-Covid world (depending on your point of view…) beginning with a trio of performances of Alma Redemptoris Mater (2020) by the University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir on tour in the Orkney Isles. Sandwiched in the middle of this is another performance of Regina Coeli (2020) by the Choir of All Saints, Fulham, conducted by Jonathan Wikeley. The amazing Pro Coro Canada will give the Canadian premiere of The World on Fire (2015) in Edmonton on the 19th, followed by two performances of O Lord, Save Thy People (2022) by the Choir of St Chad’s College, Durham.

The death of the great Sir Harrison Birtwistle earlier this month was a seismic moment in British contemporary music, arguably the end of an era and a moment to assess the position new classical music holds in British cultural life. Birtwistle’s long creative life has rightly been lauded in all the right places with a genuine feeling that an individual and original voice had been lost and that it wasn’t instantly apparent where such voices might come from in the future. It doesn’t take much for the contemporary music machine to indulge in a period of naval gazing, but maybe this was allowed following such a momentous departure.

May sees the first performances of two substantial new works in London and the Lake District. On the 7th, the Festival Te Deum will be premiered on the opening night of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music at St Pancras Church, London by the festival singers and Christopher Bactchelor. On the 21st, the Wordsworth Singers and Adderbury Ensemble will give the first performance of Thread About My Heart, written for the 250th anniversary of William Wordsworth’s birth in my hometown of Keswick.

The end of March and April sees some performances of my works around the world. Sunday 27 March sees the second performance of Folksongs (2021) by Christopher Baxter in Aberdeen, followed the week after by a performance of Green (2012) by the Caritas choir in Canterbury. The month finishes with the premiere of my Dickinson setting Waiting (2021) by Brian Stevens and the Nazareth College Chamber Singers in New York State, USA.

February sees two world premieres in Scotland and Germany, and could herald the beginning of an exciting and succesful year (worldwide pandemics notwithstanding). On the 8th, Manfred Grob will premiere my most recent organ work, Fantasia, in Dortmund and two days later Duncan Honeybourne will give the first performance of my set of piano Folksongs in Aberdeen.

As I do every year, I try to write a short review of the outgoing year trying to collate all my comings-and-goings and giving some sort of pithy overview of my achievements (or lack thereof). 2021 has proven to be another extremely difficult COVID year, though perhaps not quite the horror-show that 2020 proved to be. It began with another lockdown (with resulting homeschooling and online teaching) and ended with more chaos and uncertainty, but there were moments, glimpses, of something more positive as performances did happen, music was made and at times some sort of normality did prevail.