PRESS RELEASE
Harry Christophers and The Sixteen release world premiere recording of new works by leading British composers James MacMillan, Roxanna Panufnik and Will Todd

The productive partnership between The Sixteen and the Genesis Foundation continues with the release in May 2009 of a CD of three new choral works from three of Britain’s most respected contemporary composers: James MacMillan, Roxanna Panufnik and Will Todd. Each work is a setting of the prayer Stay With Me, Lord, by the Capuchin priest Padre Pio (the familiar name by which millions know St Pius of Pietrelcina). The purpose of the commissions was to refresh approaches to creating contemporary liturgical music and to inspire and delight people of every faith and conviction.

Padre Pio's Prayer, in its English version, became a favourite of Genesis Foundation founder and chairman John Studzinski CBE when he heard it at the funeral of a friend’s father.  A seed was sown.  Fortuitously composer Roxanna Panufnik was sitting next to him and they began discussing the many positive aspects of having the prayer set to music. Studzinski decided to commission Roxanna Panufnik, James MacMillan and Will Todd with a brief to compose settings that could be sung by choirs everywhere as a way of addressing Studzinski’s concerns about the lack of music written today for congregational participation.  The result was three very different interpretations, each communicating equally powerfully the multitude of emotions expressed in the prayer – anxiety, frailty, warmth, confidence, ecstasy and, ultimately, peace. The pieces were premiered in a performance by The Sixteen to a packed audience in Westminster Cathedral in June 2008.

The Sixteen’s Founder and Conductor Harry Christophers, says: “It was quite fascinating for me to see the way this beautiful prayer affected James MacMillan, Roxanna Panufnik and Will Todd, the latter being the only non-Catholic of the three.   All were inspired but in different ways; James by the soul’s lonely anguish at impending death, Roxanna by the introvert, ardent and passionate text and Will by the fervent, beseeching intensity of the prayer.”

Also included on this new release is Will Todd’s Among Angels which was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation and given its world premiere by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen in Salzburg in 2006.

Padre Pio, or St Pius of Pietrelcina, Southern Italy, where he was born the son of a shepherd in 1887, died 40 years ago at the age of 82. In 2002 he was canonised by Pope John Paul II who had greatly speeded up the process of creating saints. The new saint's supporters, of whom there are millions around the world, attest to his miracles (more than 1,000 confirmed by the Vatican), his visions and his stigmata - visible wounds in his hands, feet and side matching those of Jesus. His claims were investigated more than once and during the 1920s he was banned from celebrating Mass. This was reversed in the 1930s and his reputation has prospered increasingly ever since. A church in Chicago has as a relic the bloody nightshirt he wore when first stigmatised and YouTube has a short film of him celebrating mass before an adoring congregation. More Italians are believed to pray to him today than to the Virgin Mary and, he is known unofficially as 'the patron saint of stress relief' in accord with his most famous dictum, 'Pray, hope and don't worry.'

In January it was announced that, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of his death, Padre Pio's body would be exhumed and put on display for a few months. This is normal practice with new saints. It is an opportunity to check on the condition of the body, or even that it is the right one, and not to remove parts for relics as cynics have claimed. The three new pieces of music are part of Pio's worldwide commemorations and the text chosen is the post-communion prayer which he said every day for more than 50 years, 'Stay with me Lord...'

Buy: Padre Pio Prayer
To Buy the Padre Pio CD at a special 25% discount, visit The Sixteen’s online shop.
When purchasing your CD type ‘PADREPIO’ into the special offer box to get your discount.