Stephen Hough CBE

Stephen Hough’s Hallowed, a sequence of sacred settings celebrating the universality of the human experience, was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation to celebrate the British Museum’s exhibition: Living with gods: Peoples, places and worlds beyond, sponsored by the Genesis Foundation. Hallowed was premiered in March 2018 in a concert designed to complement the exhibition, performed by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen in the Parthenon Gallery of the British Museum.

Hallowed examines the expression of religious wonder and awe, spanning from the book of Genesis – Abraham as the common father for Jews, Christians and Muslims – to an 8th century Chinese poem, a joyful Navajo text and finishing with the Lord’s Prayer from the New Testament.

On 2 November 2018, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen released Star of Heaven: The Eton Choirbook Legacy on their CORO label, which featured Hallowed.

Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career as a pianist with those of composer and writer. Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Hough was the first classical performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year’s Honours 2014.

Since taking first prize at the 1983 Naumburg Competition in New York, Hough has performed with many of the world’s major orchestras and has given recitals at the most prestigious concert halls. He is a regular guest at festivals such as Salzburg, La Roque- d’Anthéron, Mostly Mozart, Edinburgh, and BBC Proms, where he has made more than twenty concerto appearances. Hough has composed works for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble and solo piano. He has been commissioned by the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Gilmore Foundation, The Genesis Foundation, London’s National Gallery, Wigmore Hall, Le Musée de Louvre and Musica Viva Australia among others.

To listen to Star of Heaven, click here.

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