2019 Highlights

The Edinburgh International Festival presented the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Le grand Inconnu in August. Commissioned by the Genesis Foundation, this large-scale choral symphony (No.5) based on the Holy Spirit was performed by its dedicatees Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, alongside members of Genesis Sixteen, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The concert was recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and subsequently given its London premiere at the Barbican with Britten Sinfonia. Read more here.

The Genesis Foundation’s previous major commission from James MacMillan, his Stabat mater, received its North American premiere in October at New York’s Lincoln Center in a performance by Harry Christophers, The Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia.

The Genesis Foundation is one of the biggest commissioners of sacred music, having commissioned 25 works to date principally for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen.

The Genesis Foundation sponsored the Royal Academy of Arts’ major exhibition, Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth, which ran from 26 January – 31 March 2019. The exhibition paired installations by pioneering video artist Bill Viola with rarely-seen drawings by Michelangelo, exploring how these artists shared a deep preoccupation with the nature of human experience and existence, despite working five centuries apart and in radically different media.

Inspired by the Bill Viola / Michelangelo exhibition, The Sixteen performed a concert entitled Miserere at the Royal Academy. The programme coupled music from the Sistine Chapel with musical responses from contemporary composers and included the world premiere of Angus McPhee’s Panem Nostrum… Ave Maria, commissioned by the Genesis Foundation.

Alongside the launch of the new Genesis Foundation website, The Genesis Podcast Series of conversations between artists and thought leaders was launched in the run-up to the Genesis Foundation’s 20^th anniversary in 2021. Listen here to the first two podcasts of the series.

A major new partnership between the Genesis Foundation and the Almeida Theatre was announced with the launch of the Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme. This annual programme supports emerging and experienced writers in developing new plays for larger stages, giving them the space and time to experiment with form and scale. Find out more here. 

At the Young Vic, 2018 Genesis Future Director Lekan Lawal directed Wild East and 2019 Genesis Future Directors Catriona Shoobridge and Dadiow Lin directed Ivan and the Dogs and in a word. The Young Vic launched a new and improved Genesis Network website to facilitate better the community and peer-support among young creatives. Explore the new website here.

In other theatre news, 2019 Genesis LAMDA graduating scholar Stuart Thompson made his professional stage debut in the National Theatre’s national tour of A Taste of Honey. Abubakar Salim (class of 2014) was selected as one of BAFTA’s Breakthrough Brits 2019. Read more about this here.

Genesis LAMDA Network workshops and mentoring programme continued, with Mono Box recently giving a three-hour workshop with Milly Thomas (Dust, Clickbait, BBC3’s Clique) and Lisa Carroll (Cuckoo, Soho Theatre). Find out more about Genesis LAMDA Network here.

Workshops for the National Theatre’s Genesis Music Theatre Group continued. The theatre held an NT Talk exploring music theatre chaired by Nina Steiger, Senior Dramaturg (NT) with contributions from Marc Tritschler, Music Associate (NT) and Joel Fram. Read more about the partnership here.

Seeking to increase representation within the UK visual arts organisations, Create London selected Losal Chiodak as the first Genesis Young Curator giving him the opportunity to work with them as well as Tate Britain and the Chisenhale Gallery to gain invaluable experience. Read more here.

This year, Genesis Sixteen announced its ninth cohort and 200^th singer, demonstrating the ongoing success of the programme in nurturing the next generation of talented ensemble singers. In addition to performing the world premiere of Le grand Inconnu, the group joined the Hallé Orchestra for their BBC Prom performance of Berlioz’s oratorio The Childhood of Christ.

Photographer Joanna Piotrowska, 2011 recipient of the Genesis Scholarship at the Royal College of Art had a solo show, All Our False Devices, at Tate Britain. Find more on her work here.

The Sixteen’s young artists’ programme Genesis Sixteen will continue its association with opera company and homeless charity Streetwise Opera with three performances of After Winter, based on Schubert’s Winterreise, in July 2020. Performing After Winter with Genesis Sixteen will be baritone Roderick Williams OBE, pianist Christopher Glynn, the Brodsky Quartet and the Ryedale Community Chorus led by Em Whitfield Brooks.

Harry Christophers, Founder and Conductor of The Sixteen, said:

“What an honour to be continuing our partnership with Streetwise Opera and to be involved in their brilliant and important work. Our collaboration on The Passion in 2016 was quite simply life-changing for all of us involved in the project. As a result, we made a firm resolution to always keep in touch with Streetwise and we were delighted to be involved in Celebrating Leonardo da Vinci at Sounds Sublime last year. I am therefore so excited that singers from our Genesis Sixteen programme will get the opportunity to have this experience with After Winter.”

The production will be staged at Middlesbrough Town Hall on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 July 2020 and Ryedale Festival on Sunday 12 July, directed by John Fulljames, Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Opera, conducted by Streetwise Opera’s Artistic Director, Hannah Conway, and with design by Anna Robinson.

Tickets will go on sale in March 2020 on the Middlesbrough Town Hall and Ryedale Festival websites.

For more information on Genesis Sixteen, click here.

The October announcement of the major new partnership between the Genesis Foundation and the Almeida Theatre has received international coverage in publications such as the Evening Standard, The Stage, Broadway World and WhatsOnStage as well as a social media buzz.

More than 750 Almeida e-newsletter readers alone ‘clicked through’ to find out more about the scheme and across social media the programme received an impressive 8,296 impressions, demonstrating the growing interest around the work of the Genesis Foundation.

The Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays programme is an annual programme that supports emerging and experienced writers to develop new plays for larger stages, giving them the space and time to experiment with form and scale.

Stephanie Bain, literary manager of the Almeida Theatre, gave an interview to The Stage about her reasons for setting up the programme: “I was finding that there was a gap. People were getting a lot of studio work but then they were getting stuck”. Now, she hopes the diverse cohort will both contribute to plays at the Almeida, as well as “feeding the British theatre ecology more widely”. 

To read the interview with Stephanie Bain in The Stage, click here.

For more information on the programme, click here.

Two days after its North American premiere, James MacMillan’s Stabat mater was performed in the imposing surroundings of Ely Cathedral on 9 November 2019.

While the work received its world premiere in the Barbican, followed by a performance in the Sistine Chapel, this is the first time that the Stabat mater has been performed in a cathedral setting. For MacMillan, “beauty is at the heart of our Christian faith” and his Stabat mater has been profoundly shaped by his beliefs – it is his personal response to what is unquestionably the most powerful poem of the liturgy.

The work was performed by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia, who also gave the North American premiere of the work.

To find out more about MacMillan’s Stabat mater, as well as his other Genesis Foundation commissions, click here.

To watch the video recording of the performance in the Sistine Chapel, click here.

On 7 November 2019, James MacMillan’s Stabat mater received its North American premiere in the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York.

This Genesis Foundation commission, a profound and deeply moving rendering of the Stabat mater text which evokes a mother’s anguish, was performed by the work’s dedicatees Harry Christophers and The Sixteen who were joined by Britten Sinfonia. The programme also featured the North American premiere of MacMillan’s haunting Miserere. 

The Stabat mater received its world premiere in October 2016 at the Barbican and its historic Vatican premiere in April 2018 – the first-ever concert to be live-streamed from the Sistine Chapel, reaching millions of people around the world. A recording of the work was subsequently issued and received great acclaim, including many 5 star reviews.

Click here to watch the video recording of the performance in the Sistine Chapel.

Click here for Opera Wire’s interview with Harry Christophers ahead of the performance.

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Genesis Foundation to present first ever concert live-streaming from the Sistine Chapel 22 April 2018 | 20 March 2018

James MacMillan’s Stabat mater – a Genesis Foundation commission – wins the Diapason d’Or for Choral Music in Paris | 23 November 2017

James MacMillan’s Stabat mater – a Genesis Foundation commission – is Gramophone’s Recording of the Month, May 2017 | 28 April 2017

Premiere of James MacMillan’s Stabat Mater | 12 October 2016

Widely recognised as the UK’s leading commissioner of sacred music, the Genesis Foundation’s 25th and latest commission received its premiere performance during Mons. Vladimir Felzmann’s Anniversary Mass at Westminster Cathedral on Thursday 24 October.

The new motet O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me was composed by renowned British choral composer Bob Chilcott to celebrate Genesis Foundation’s trustee Mons. Vladimir Felzmann’s 80th birthday and the golden jubilee of his priesthood. The anthem is based on Vladimir’s favourite psalm, Psalm 139.

The choir performing the new work and the communion motet, Byrd’s Ave verum corpus, comprised men’s voices from Westminster Cathedral and six Genesis Sixteen sopranos.

To see the list of the 25 Genesis Foundation sacred music commissions, click here.

To learn more about the 25th sacred music commission, watch the interview below with composer Bob Chilcott.

On Thursday 24 October a major new partnership between the Genesis Foundation and the Almeida Theatre was announced with the launch of the Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme. This is an annual programme that supports emerging and experienced writers to develop new plays for larger stages, giving them the space and time to experiment with form and scale.

Each writer on the programme is commissioned to develop one new play and will be given guidance and dramaturgical support from the Almeida’s Literary Manager and Artistic team. During the year the writers will also attend 12 masterclasses led by established British and international playwrights and be given a five-day research and development workshop to develop their commission.

John Studzinski, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation commented:

“One of the great gifts of life is to be challenged continually and never to stop learning. The Genesis Foundation works with its partners to identify areas in arts philanthropy that aren’t being fulfilled. Experienced artists wishing to develop their creative work are too often overlooked for support and commissions and don’t get the mentoring they need. It’s important that we support the creation of the Genesis Almeida Writers Programme. By identifying and supporting writers who will benefit most from working with the team at the Almeida we are helping to ensure that they continue to develop their work in new and exciting ways.”

Rupert Goold, Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre, said:

“As we announce these two new plays, it feels fitting to also announce the brand new Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme, featuring seven writers who have all demonstrated their ability to think big, engaging with unusual, imaginative and formally innovative ideas. We can’t wait to guide them over the next year and to see what they produce and are hugely grateful to the Genesis Foundation for giving us this opportunity.”

The Genesis Almeida Writers for 2019/20 are: Kendall Feaver, Sami Ibrahim, Charley Miles, Amy Ng, Iman Qureshi, Sam Steiner and Ross Willis.

The Genesis Foundation has been an active supporter of the UK theatre world for several decades, funding the Royal Court’s International Playwrights’ Programme for 20 years and the Genesis Directors Program at the Young Vic. The Almeida Theatre joins current theatre partners the National Theatre, LAMDA and Young Vic.

For more information on the programme click here.

The Young Vic Directors Program has announced the launch of a new and improved Genesis Network website. Serving nearly 1,000 directors, designers and producers living in the UK at the early stages of their career, this updated and developed site will better facilitate the community and peer-support among young creatives.

The Genesis Network provides a unique online platform for exchanging experiences, forming vital creative relationships and collaborations, finding job opportunities and discovering relevant events at the Young Vic and other UK theatres. Members of the Young Vic Directors Program, which is the only scheme of its kind, will now have access to live updated events, creative opportunities, discussion forums and a more streamlined portal to associate with each other. The network can also be used for linking up independent producers, theatre companies and writers with directors and designers for their projects.

John Studzinski, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, said: “E.M. Foster famously said ‘Only Connect.’ The Genesis Network has enabled thousands of theatre professionals at every stage of their careers to do exactly that: to connect, to learn of new opportunities and to build relationships… The Genesis Network has had an immense impact on the UK theatre world and we are delighted that the Network continues to evolve and expands its work.”

Sue Emmas, Associate Artistic Director of the Young Vic, said: “Directing can be a lonely and isolated career and the Genesis Network brings artists together in a unique way… New artists join all the time and we really hope this is a moment for more directors, designers and producers to know about this brilliant resource and join up.”

The partnership between the Genesis Foundation and the Young Vic dates back sixteen years and has been crucial to establishing and maintaining the Young Vic’s support of artists through schemes such as the Genesis Future Directors Award and the Genesis Fellowship.  

Nadia Latif, current Young Vic Genesis Fellow and Associate Director, said: “Simply put, there is nothing else quite like the Genesis Network out there. Whether you’re a fledgling director just thinking about maybe making the dream of directing into a concrete reality, an emerging director trying to jump from assisting to making your own work, or a mid-career director trying to work in bigger spaces – the Genesis Network will have opportunities and training possibilities.”

Find out more about the Genesis Foundation’s projects with the Young Vic here.

Explore the new website here.

This announcement was also featured in The Stage and Broadway World.

On the evening of Saturday 17th August a standing ovation and a host of five-star reviews greeted the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Fifth Symphony, Le grand Inconnu, at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

This large-scale choral symphony, commissioned by the Genesis Foundation, was performed by the work’s dedicatees Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, alongside members of Genesis Sixteen, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

The Spectator described how “the whole symphony pulls quietly towards consonance and a vast, cumulative sense of affirmation”, while The Times commented that the work is “likely to join MacMillan epics…in gripping the ears, spearing the heart and moving the soul.” The symphony received five star reviews from Bachtrack and The Arts Desk, as well as sterling reviews from the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Scotsman and The Herald.

The concert was recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and will be performed again in London on the 14^th October at the Barbican. Book tickets here.

Photo credit: Adrian Myers