Some Thoughts about the Padre Pio Premieres by John Studzinski

Ten years have passed since I commissioned Roxanna Panufnik to write Westminster Mass that had its world premiere in this very place.  From that experience grew the germ of an idea that led to the creation of the Genesis Foundation where we strive to bring together different sets of objectives that are important to me.

In the case of Westminster Mass, I had wanted to present Cardinal Hume with a present for his 75th birthday knowing that he would not be comfortable accepting anything personal.  At the same time, Roxanna was a relatively unknown young composer developing her own voice and confidence and beginning to emerge into public awareness.  I wished to give her career a springboard and help her at a time when she needed to be shown practical support in her talent.

The experience of watching her work on her commission and the impact of the piece itself worldwide led to my creating a whole programme based on this model through the Genesis Foundation. The aims are not only to find and encourage artists at the beginning of their professional careers, but also to engage with audiences in a way that makes them understand their own participation in the arts.

Tonight’s Genesis evening therefore springs from, we hope, an enlightened and enthusiastic approach to commissioning emerging talents, an engagement with the audience and, most especially, an emphasis on the spirituality that is always at the centre of major creativity.

It is most appropriate, therefore, that we should be holding our celebration focused on Saint Pio in Westminster Cathedral where this whole Genesis process began.

The idea for the new commissions came to me when I attended the funeral of a friend’s father.  They happened to narrate my favourite prayer, Stay with Me, Lord by Padre – now Saint Pio. Roxana Panufnik was sitting next to me and we began discussing the many positive aspects of having it set to music.  I therefore decided to see if we could create a spiritual experience by commissioning three composers, two of whom (Roxanna Panufnik and Will Todd) have been commissioned by Genesis before, and the third of whom (James MacMillan) is well known to Westminster Cathedral as a composer of noteworthy spiritual works. I asked them to find their own personal responses to the prayer and then set it to music to be sung by choirs up and down the country.

These three versions are being premiered tonight by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, a group with which Genesis has worked before with great pleasure.  They are joined in tonight’s one-hour concert by Matthew Martin and Westminster Cathedral Choir who will be providing a programme of Tudor liturgical music as a contrast to these three new pieces. We hope this will create another dialogue, this time between the old and the new, between the Renaissance and the present day.

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2002, was a Capuchin priest.  We are very fortunate to have with us this evening, Father Mark Turnham Elvins, a friar of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin who is Warden of Greyfriars, Oxford.  He has very kindly agreed to narrate Stay with Me, Lord in tonight’s programme.

I want to thank all of you for taking time to come here and witness the creation of three musical compositions of Stay with Me, Lord by Saint Pio. The core of this event is a celebration of the great spiritual and inspirational power of Pio expressed through and filtered through both the creative genius of young and emerging talent and the beauty of the gifted vocal talents of The Sixteen. This is an event about the sustaining power and nurturing that prayer provides for each one of us in our lives and about the role music and voice play in our spiritual lives. I am grateful for the way this project has brought together many elements that motivate me and has come to fruition through the spiritual sentiment represented individually by each of these new works.

John J. Studzinski
Founder and Chairman
Genesis Foundation