LONDON ENGLISH SONG FESTIVAL

See now: PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 2022

Welcome to the London English Song Festival, a charity dedicated to nurturing the legacy and widening the knowledge of English song and oratorio in London and throughout the U.K., founded by conductor and pianist William Vann.

Our 2019/20 project culminated in the performance of Hubert Parry’s stunning oratorio Judith for the first time in London in over a century. We subsequently created the world premiere recording of this neglected masterpiece with Chandos Records, a disc that received glowing reviews in the national press, was BBC Radio 3 Record of the Week and was nominated for a 2020 Gramophone Award in the Choral category.

In September 2022 we partnered again with Chandos Records, Crouch End Festival Chorus and the London Mozart Players to make the world premiere recording of Parry’s first major work for chorus, soloists and orchestra, his cantata Prometheus Unbound. Written for the Gloucester Festival in 1880, it is a powerful and dramatic work, strongly influenced by Wagner yet showing clear signs of Parry’s developing, individual compositional voice. A stunning line-up was been assembled for our recording this September, including some of the finest British singing talent, with which we hope to restore this work to the contemporary musical consciousness once more.

Prometheus Unbound will be released on Chandos Records on Friday 8th September 2023. You can pre-order it already from online merchants such as Presto Classical.

To find out more, get in touch with us via the contact page, and please support the work of the London English Song Festival.

London English Song Festival is a registered charity, no. 1159818