Rose Ever Blooming

Rose Ever Blooming honors the role of Mary in the story of Jesus, highlighting the importance of family and the eternally strong bonds between mother and son.

Inspired by Patricia Monaghan’s poetry, we have constructed a libretto featuring 12 of Monaghan’s poems and 3 traditional Christmas carol arrangements, which provide familiar musical touchstones while supporting the themes and narratives in Monaghan’s poetry. 

We were drawn to this story because we are both parents. The everyday act of bringing life into the world is shared by millions, yet feels incredibly special and divine to each of us who do it. Patricia Monaghan’s poetry amplifies the responsibility and joy of parenthood. In her Magnificat, Mary takes power from within and shares that strength among all women and the miracle of birth. 

Many moments of the Christmas story are highlighted in this piece. Each divine moment of the Christmas story is presented alongside a human counterpart. In Rose Ever Blooming, Mary’s story is presented as a reflection from the end of her life, beginning with the Annunciation and ending with her own list of Beatitudes — praising the ordinary and the everyday blessings we take for granted. 

We see the onset of motherhood as a metamorphosis from an ordinary girl to one who will “bring forth the future.” A new Magnificat recognizes the divine within all of us. The resurrection of Jesus is foreshadowed beautifully through metaphor as the cutting of a tree in full bloom causes Mary to pause and cry over its loss, but wonder at the blooming of its flowers even after its death. It is refreshing to hear Mary’s story through her eyes, and Monaghan’s brilliant portrayal of her character shines through in these sensitive and poignant poems. 

The VOCES8 Foundation Choir “warm and as ever pitch-perfect” (5★ BBC Music Magazine) is a group of professional chamber singers with a silky yet punchy sound, sublime blend and the precision and agility of its namesake, VOCES8. Its members are connected to the Foundation through VOCES8, Apollo5, Lyyra, its Scholars or the LIVE From London online concert series. Under Artistic Director and conductor Barnaby Smith’s guidance, the ensemble has performed both a cappella and orchestral repertoire by Bach, Byrd, Handel, Weelkes, Haydn, Mozart, Harris, Walton and Vaughan Williams, and recorded and filmed new commission premieres by Mårten Jansson, Christopher Tin, Paul Smith and Taylor Scott Davis. It has worked with the Philharmonia, the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Foundation’s own Orchestra.

The VOCES8 Foundation Orchestra is made up of London’s finest orchestral players and a staggering line-up of chamber musicians and soloists who gather to support the charitable and educational ethos of the Foundation. Under Barnaby Smith’s direction, the orchestra’s sound is both mesmerically precise and lushly expansive.

The Foundation Choir and Orchestra’s first album release on VOCES8 Records was Mårten Jansson’s Requiem Novum with the Philharmonia. Their 2023 Decca Classics Christmas album, ‘A Choral Christmas’, featured the choir singing “sparkling, roof-raising arrangements of the classics that really impress” (5★BBC Music Magazine) and the world premiere recording of Taylor Scott Davis’s Magnificat, both of which were first premiered in LIVE From London. Last year the album ‘To Sing of Love’ was released, featuring To Sing of Love: a Triptych, a new concerto for violin, choir & orchestra written for Jack Liebeck and the VOCES8 Foundation Choir by Taylor Scott Davis, and new choral orchestrations of works by composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams (The Lark Ascending), Benjamin Britten (Rejoice in the Lamb) and Eric Whitacre (Sleep).

“Jack Liebeck’s violin commenced with the absolute lightest of touches, a whisper of chords that was as breathtaking as it was beautiful. It set the tone for his exemplary interpretation, as technically assured as it was expressive and emotive. It was easy to visualize [the piece] within Liebeck’s fine palette of musical colors”  – ArtsHub

British/German violinist, director and festival director Jack Liebeck possesses “flawless technical mastery” and a “beguiling silvery tone” (BBC Music Magazine). Jack is the Royal Academy of Music’s first Émile Sauret Professor of Violin and Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Jack’s playing embraces the worlds of elegant chamber-chic Mozart through to the impassioned mastery required to frame Brett Dean’s The Lost Art of Letter Writing and he has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and chamber musicians. Jack’s fascination with all things scientific has led to two new concertos being written for him and regular collaborator Professor Brian Cox – Dario Marianelli’s Voyager Violin Concerto and Paul Dean’s A Brief History of Time commissioned by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in commemoration of Professor Stephen Hawking.

In summer 2024 Jack gave the world premiere of Taylor Scott Davis’ Effortlessly with VOCES8 on the main stage of Sydney Opera House. A new commission from Debbie Pritchard is in the works, and future album releases include Clive Osgood Stabat Mater on Convivium Records, the Wilson Violin Concerto recorded with Rory Macdonald and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for Linn Records and a London Choral Sinfonia recording of Malcolm Arnold Double Concerto with Alexander Sitkovesky.

Recent highlights also include a return to Queensland Symphony Orchestra performing a new arrangement of Lark Ascending, his debut with Spokane Symphony performing the US premiere of Marianelli Voyager and returns to Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Savannah Chamber Music Festival and the Franz Liszt Orchestra.

As the first Émile Sauret Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music Jack works as an ambassador helping to recruit future talent both at home and internationally as well as nurturing the next generation of violinists in his class. Jack is also a member of the Salieca Piano Trio and directs his own ensemble of regular collaborators, ‘Jack Liebeck and Friends’.

Jack plays the ‘Ex-Wilhelmj’ J.B. Guadagnini dated 1785 and is generously loaned a Joseph Henry bow by Kathron Sturrock in the memory of her late husband Professor David Bennett. Jack Liebeck is managed worldwide by Percius. www.percius.co.uk

Grammy-nominated, Barnaby Smith is Artistic Director of the internationally renowned vocal ensemble VOCES8, LIVE From London digital festivals, and the UK and US arms of The VOCES8 Foundation including its ensembles (Apollo5, Lyyra, The VOCES8 Foundation Choir), its Digital Academy and Milton Abbey International Festival and Summer School. Barnaby is in demand as a conductor, presenter, filmmaker, educator, countertenor and arranger.

Amongst a busy touring schedule with VOCES8 and ensembles around the world, recent projects have included Barnaby’s debuts conducting: Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Vaughan Williams and Tin which was awarded 5* by ArtsHub: “The Lost Birds conducted with abundant energy and great detail”; Nederlandse ReisOpera in Handel Messiah; Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem; the English Chamber Orchestra in Bach, Barber, Elgar and Faure; directing Jack Liebeck and VOCES8 in a new programme at a sold-out Sydney Opera House; directing and soloing in Bach Cantatas for Inon Barnatan’s La Jolla Summerfest; directing two solo-recordings Handel & Bach with the Illyria Consort, of which Gramophone notes that there is “no denying the refined beauty and sheer skill of Smith’s performance” as well as producing and presenting the LIVE From London Festival. With VOCES8 collaborations with Eric Whitacre and Paul Simon resulted in two new albums – Home (reaching No.1 in the Classical Album chart and awarded a BBC Music Magazine Choral and Song Choice) and Seven Psalms (which garnered wide- ranging 5-star reviews and high praise from Rolling Stone magazine).

Barnaby Smith is managed worldwide by Percius. www.percius.co.uk

See the kickstarter page that is making this project possible: Rose Ever Blooming: a new VOCES8 Foundation Christmas Album.