Crossing Faultlines

soprano and piano
2021

Duration 12’
Instrumentation soprano, piano
First Performance 20 October 2021, 10pm, Oxford Lieder Festival, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford; Samantha Crawford soprano, Lana Bode piano
Commissioned by Samantha Crawford and Lana Bode, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

Charlotte has a worldwide, exclusive publishing agreement with Birdsong
Purchase Materials

Further Performances
29.4.22 Barber Institute, University of Birmingham, UK; Samantha Crawford soprano, Lana Bode pianist
22.10.22 Bloomsbury Festival: Conway Hall, London, UK; Samantha Crawford soprano, Lana Bode pianist – CANCELLED DUE TO COVID
17.07.24  Kuhmo Arts Centre, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Kuhmo, Finnland; Tuuli Lindeberg soprano, Irina Zahharenkova piano

Crossing Faultlines is a song cycle about women’s experiences in the workplace. Having been approached by Samantha and Lana to contribute to this extraordinary project, I began looking for texts to set. Searching tirelessly through volumes of poetry, it became clear that very little has been written about this aspect of women’s lives. My friend, the poet Nicki Jackowska, whose poetry I had previously set in my mezzo-soprano cycle Fire Burning in Snow, generously agreed to write new poems specially for the cycle. The three songs explore themes on mentorship in In the Margins, discrimination in Like A Drum and ambition in And Now Her Song. The cycle fits within the musicians’ programme; dream.risk.sing, telling women’s stories not traditionally told through song.

Poems by Nicki Jackowska