All commissions

Co-commission

2026

The Lost Boy

A new chamber opera for two voices, cello and harp, told across Wales, London and Kent in its first run.

Buy the score

Listen

Premiere programme

Ask JAM

Forces

Chamber Opera

Duration

90'

Words

Anastasia Bruce-Jones

Premiere

11 September 2026

Venue

St Asaph Parish Church, St Asaph

Performers

Jago Thornton (music director), Patricia Auchterlonie (soprano), Collin Shay (countertenor), Jonathan Eyers (baritone), Wallis Power (cello), Olivia Jageurs (harp)

Co-commissioned with

North Wales International Music Festival

Dedication

Publisher

Second performance

Interested in performing this work, or have a question about the score, the recording or the commission? JAM would love to hear from you.

Programme note

More from the timeline

More commissions

Sarah MacDonald

Christmas hath a beauty

Rossetti's winter carol for the choirs of Britain, JAM's second annual Christmas commission.

Christmas carol commission

Claude Debussy, arranged by Timothy Jackson

Chamber Ensemble

Debussy's sea for eleven musicians, made for a church on Romney Marsh.

Arrangement commission

Maurice Ravel, arranged by Julien Durand

Piano Concerto in G

Piano solo · Chamber Ensemble

Ravel's jazz-tinged concerto, rescored for chamber ensemble and a nineteen-year-old soloist.

Arrangement commission

A new chamber opera for two voices, cello and harp, told across Wales, London and Kent in its first run.

Choir (Christmas carol)

A Christmas carol by JAM's President, written in memory and first sung in London.

Christmas carol commission

Lisa Murfitt's dawn poem set for the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College at Hythe.

Annual commission

-ligand-tendon-

Five minutes of string septet from a Call for Music composer, premiered in a marsh church.

Annual commission

Seven Songs of Nature

Choir · Organ · Brass Quintet

Hopkins, Belloc and folk songs for choir, brass and organ, dedicated to Nicholas Cleobury.

Annual commission

Violin Concerto

Violin solo · String orchestra · Harpsichord · Percussion

Strings, harpsichord and percussion around a solo violin: a concerto shared with the London Mozart Players.

Organ · 2 Trumpets

Organ and two trumpets light up St Bride's in a six-minute fanfare.

Annual commission

String Orchestra

A starling flock for string orchestra, the President's Award commission for a Masterclass composer.

President's Award commission

John Frederick Hudson

Wild Earth Blazing

Tenor · Horn · String Orchestra · Piano · Percussion

Mark Padmore, Ben Goldscheider and the London Mozart Players in a forty-minute song cycle on Esme Lloyd's verse.

Annual commission

Christopher Churcher

SATB divisi unaccompanied

Louise Glück's poem for unaccompanied voices, written for the Delaware Choral Scholars.

Masterclass Series winner

Mark-Anthony Turnage

Turnage marks thirty years of Onyx Brass with twelve minutes written for the quintet itself.

Community Oratorio

An hour-long oratorio sung by two Romney Marsh primary schools, a boys' choir and the London Mozart Players.

Annual commission

The Song I Came to Sing

SATB divisi · Brass quintet · Organ

Tagore for choir, brass and organ, from a co-winner of the VOCES8 Masterclass Series.

Masterclass Series winner

Concerto for Clarinet

String Orchestra · Clarinet solo

Robert Plane and eleven strings in Bingham's concerto for the London Mozart Players.

Annual commission

Up in the Morning Early

A Burns-inspired brass quintet from the winner of the Onyx Brass Masterclass Series.

Masterclass Series winner

Between the Stormclouds and the Sea

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Grahame Davies's words on the Marsh and the sea, for choir, brass, organ and narrator.

Annual commission

String Orchestra · Percussion · Piano solo

Mealor's concerto, premiered online in lockdown with the London Mozart Players and the composer's dedicatee at the keyboard.

Annual commission

Samuel Becker, Julian Broughton, Michael Finnissy, Alison Kay and Nicola LeFanu

Variations Down the Line

15 new variations (duration to confirm)

Bach's Goldberg Variations with five living composers answering back, curated and played by Rachel Fryer.

String Orchestra

Eight minutes for string orchestra from a Call for Music composer, premiered by the London Mozart Players.

Annual commission

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Three anthems (duration to confirm)

Richard II's prison soliloquy, reimagined by Chloe Stopa-Hunt in three anthems for choir, brass and organ.

Festival commission

Songs from the Marshes

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Claudia Daventry's Romney Marsh poems, sung by the BBC Singers at Hythe.

Annual commission

Tom Harold and Stuart Beach

SATB divisi Choir · Cello Solo

A Canadian battlefield, a Welsh poet and a solo cello, co-commissioned with Pro Coro Canada.

SATB divisi · Soprano solo

Tagore for soprano and divided choir, sung by the BBC Singers in New Romney.

Annual commission

The Shadows of War

SATB Choir · Strings · Percussion

A Mass for the Somme, premiered on the centenary by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Cardiff.

The Voices of Our Ancestors

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Thea Musgrave sets nine ancient languages in translation, for choir, brass and organ.

Oboe Concerto, "The Angel of Mons"

Oboe · String Orchestra

A First World War legend for oboe and strings, premiered in Holborn by Red Note Ensemble.

Annual commission

The Yonghy Bonghy Bo

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet · Percussion

Edward Lear's nonsense romance with brass, organ and percussion, premiered at St Davids Cathedral.

The Farthest Shore

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

An Anglesey folk tale of a stranger washed ashore, for soloists, choir, children's choir, brass and organ.

Julian Phillips

SATB Choir · Tenor · Organ · Brass quintet

Simon Christmas's words for tenor, choir, brass and organ, published by Faber.

Annual commission

11 Solo Strings

Eleven solo strings and a stretch of Kent coast, written for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Annual commission

All Things Wear Silence

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Valentine Ackland's poems for choir, brass and organ, from the composer who heads composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

Annual commission

Organ · Brass quintet

Tallis refracted through brass and organ, premiered at St Machar's Cathedral, Aberdeen.

Annual commission

Fiery the Angels

Baritone · Brass quintet

Timothy Knapman's words for baritone and brass quintet, sung by Giles Underwood at St Bride's.

Annual commission

SATB Choir · Brass quintet

Rick Holland's words for choir and brass, an early commission for a composer now heard worldwide.

Annual commission

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

Tennyson's love poem, set the year before Mealor's music was heard by two billion people at the royal wedding.

Annual commission

The Night's Untruth

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Samuel Daniel's Elizabethan verse for choir, brass and organ, co-commissioned with VocalEssence in Minneapolis.

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Charles and Emma Darwin in their own words, for choir, brass and organ, in the Darwin bicentenary year.

Annual commission

Gabriel Jackson

The Spacious Firmament

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Addison's hymn of the heavens for choir, brass and organ, published by Oxford University Press.

Annual commission

Thoughts Scribbled on a Blank Wall

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Words by Ben Kaye and hostage John McCarthy, for baritone, choir, brass and organ.

Annual commission

My Heart Strangely Warm'd

Countertenor · Bass · SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

A Wesley conversion, a countertenor and a bass: the JAM piece that won Bingham a British Composer Award.

Annual commission

The Fifth Continent

Countertenor · SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Ben Kaye's poems on Romney Marsh, the fifth continent, for countertenor, choir, brass and organ.

Annual commission

Songs of the Garden

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Clare, Herrick, Hardy, Whitman and Blake in a garden of songs for choir, brass and organ.

Annual commission

The Far Theatricals of Day

SATB Soloists · SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Emily Dickinson for soloists, choir, brass and organ, premiered in Canterbury Cathedral.

Annual commission

Timothy Jackson

SATB Choir · Organ · Brass quintet

Russian and Nigerian poets on silence and protest, in the first JAM commission at St Bride's.

Annual commission