PAPAGENA

Event information

Songs of beauty, love and the passing of time from Papagena's forthcoming album. Programme will include music by Hildegard of Bingen, Leonora d'Este and Claudio Monteverdi to Kate Bush, Caroline Shaw and James MacMillan.

Papagena is a rarity in the UK, an all-female consort of five professional singers set up to explore music from medieval times to the present day written specifically for female voices. The group’s programming defies pigeonholing; drawing richly on traditional folk music and women’s working songs from around the world, Papagena juxtaposes these pieces with more classical repertoire from Kassia and Hildegard of Bingen to Imogen Heap and Katy Perry, as well as writing its own material and commissioning from an eclectic range of composers including Errollyn Wallen, Oliver Tarney, Janet Wheeler, John Duggan, Liz Dilnot Johnson and Jim Clements. Medieval, classical, folk and contemporary music is interwoven into intriguing programmes such as Love, Legends and Lullabies, Nuns and Roses, The Darkest Midnight, Still Moving and A Winter’s Dawn which fascinate diverse audiences and the group also undertakes education projects involving both school and adult voices.

Launched in 2015, the group has performed at numerous festivals and venues throughout the UK with recent performances in Winchester Cathedral, The Stables - Milton Keynes, Southwell Minister, Powderham Castle, Christchurch Priory, the Three Choirs Festival and the Ryedale Festival. Internationally, Papagena has performed in Ireland, Scotland and recently a collaboration with harpist Victoria Davies, recorder player Francesca Celements and the Rotterdam Conservatoire, premiering new works written specifically for the group.

Papagena’s first album, Nuns and Roses, was produced and released under its own label in 2017. Its second album The Darkest Midnight was released in November 2018 under the SOMM record label and reached No 6 in the classical charts as well as the No 1 classical download position. It was selected as Recording of the Month in December 2018 by Music Web International. It’s third album Hush! was released on the SOMM label in March 2020 and received stunning reviews in all major journals including Gramophone. Papagena’s fourth album ‘Tomorrow is Today’ is due for release in Spring 2026.

Papagena made its BBC debut in 2018, singing live during the International Women’s Day concert on Radio 3. Since then the group has given several further live performances on the BBC, on both In Tune (Radio 3) and Woman’s Hour (Radio 4). In 2018 Papagena was also selected to be one of Making Music’s coveted Selected Artists for the 2019/2020 season. During lockdown the group released its own podcast Papsolutely Fabulous! as well as video recordings of music by Hildegard of Bingen and Imogen Heap’s iconic Hide and Seek. More recent video releases feature music by Monteverdi (for 2024’s Breast Cancer Awareness day) and the group’s own arrangement of James MacMillan’s The Gallant Weaver.

Papagena has enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with the Orchestra of the Swan with whom it performed in Stratford on Avon and at the Birmingham Royal Conservatoire. The group has also performed with soloists including Lynda Sayce (theorbo), Victoria Davies (harp) and Cathy Lamb (organ). Forthcoming projects include the world premiere of a new setting of the Passion by Liz Dilnot Johnson, a return to the Netherlands and a collaboration with the award-winning Farnham Youth Choir.