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Karl Jenkins: One World is the WFMT: Featured New Release

A new album from Sir Karl Jenkins, one of the world’s most-performed living composers. The album presents One World, commissioned by Nicol Matt, founder and artistic director of the World Choir for Peace. Released on Decca Records 

The World Choir for Peace was founded in 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War when Sir Karl conducted a commemorative performance of his The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace in Berlin with a choir of 2000 singers from 30 countries. 

As with that concert, the choir is joined in this new work by the World Orchestra for Peace, co-founded by Sir Georg Solti and Charles Kaye in 1995 to reaffirm “the unique strength of music as an ambassador for peace”.

These illustrious ensembles are joined for two movements by the Stay At Home Choir, a global choral community formed during the first Covid-19 lockdown to bring singers together, digitally, during a time of isolation. The virtual ensemble has already formed a strong connection to the music of Sir Karl Jenkins; their 2020 video performance of The Armed Man amassed over 5000 singers in a powerful online singalong hosted by Classic FM.

One World deals with a fractured world (populist governments, plagues, climate change, human trafficking, disrespect for basic human rights, terrorism, war) and heralds a vision of a peaceful and egalitarian planet. The work is best encapsulated by one of the texts set: ‘Tikkun Olam’, Hebrew for ‘repair the world’, a Jewish concept of stewardship over God’s creation.

The music is scored in Karl’s inimitable style that resists categorisation and has had a truly global reach. To create this vision, he takes inspiration from texts as diverse as the Bible, the Hindu Gayatri Mantra, the poetry of the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, African American abolitionist and suffragist poet Frances Harper (c.1850) and Lebanese American writer, poet and artist Kahlil Gibran. As in many of Sir Karl’s works, Carol Barratt contributes some impactful text (including for the movement “Paradise Lost?”), as well as various adaptations.

The combined orchestral and choral forces, with baritone Roderick Williams OBE, soprano Lucy Crowe and mezzo Kathryn Rudge as soloists, are conducted by Sir Karl Jenkins, in collaboration with Artistic Director of the World Choir for Peace, Nicol Matt. 

I began One World during the first U.K. COVID lockdown in 2020. Progress was slow and I had a nagging concern that issues raised in the work would be irrelevant by the time of the premiere and record release, in 2023. Twenty odd years since writing The Armed Man, and three thousand performances later, little has changed and if anything, the global situation has worsened; another war in Europe and a fractured world in so many ways. 
'tukkin olam' - repair the world.”     (Sir Karl Jenkins CBE FRAM)

Nicol Matt (Artistic Director of the World Choir for Peace) says, "For me as the commissioner of the magnificent One World, a personal dream comes true. It’s a special honour to collaborate with this outstanding composer, Sir Karl Jenkins, in the creation of this new major work. His music offers a powerful contribution to heal the world. I look forward very much to its premiere with the wonderful World Orchestra for Peace and my choir, the World Choir for Peace, under the baton of the composer. May it go on to fulfil its mission in countless performances worldwide!"

Charles Kaye (Director and General Manager of the World Orchestra for Peace) says, "The World Orchestra for Peace and the 68 players from 28 countries who join Sir Karl for One World share his vision and hope for this new work. As its concertmaster Krzysztof Wisniewski has touchingly expressed, 'Karl's music has captivated me for many years and therefore it is a personal privilege to be in at the “sound birth” of this new masterpiece. It was very exciting for us to help bring this new creation, with its hopes for peace and world unity, to life. During such times as those in which we live, the emotional message through his music is needed more than ever’." 


For July 25, 2023, Karl Jenkins: One World – World Choir For Peace, featuring the World Orchestra For Peace is the WFMT: Chicago ‘Featured New Release.’ WFMT writes….Decca Records presents a new album from Sir Karl Jenkins, one of the world’s most-performed living composers. One World deals with a fractured world and heralds a vision of a peaceful and egalitarian planet. The music is scored in Jenkins’ inimitable style that resists categorization and has had a truly global reach. To create this vision, he takes inspiration from texts as diverse as the Bible, the Hindu Gayatri Mantra, the poetry of the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, African American abolitionist and suffragist poet Frances Harper, and Lebanese American writer, poet, and artist Kahlil Gibran. The work was commissioned by Nicol Matt, founder and artistic director of the World Choir for Peace.