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Kerensa Briggs
Current Composer-in-Residence
2022 – 2025
Kerensa Briggs is an award-winning composer based in London. Her music has been performed internationally at venues including St Paul’s Cathedral and the Sistine Chapel, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and BBC Radio Scotland by ensembles such as The Tallis Scholars and the BBC Singers. It also features on a number of CDs including 'Advent Carols from King's College London', 'All things are quite silent' by the Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Kerensa was winner of the National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award 2014 and is a member of the TheoArtistry Composers scheme at St Andrews' Institute for Theology and The Arts and the ‘Illuminate’ women’s music project. Her love of choral music emanates from her background, singing in choirs including Gloucester Cathedral Youth and the choir of King's College, London, where she held a Choral Scholarship and undertook an MMus in Composition. Described as 'poignant, ambivalent, quietly devastating music' in the New York Times and 'quiet and curvaceous' in Gramophone magazine, selected works are published by Boosey & Hawkes and Stainer & Bell.​
COMPOSERS-IN-RESIDENCE
Kerensa’s first work for the Chamber Chorus was a suite in three movements titled Height in Depth, and this was subsequently recorded by the choir on Saint Louis Reflections (Regent Records). Then came Ode to a Saviour, another setting for double choir, this time of words from Sophocles’ “Antigone” translated by Philip Barnes. Next, Kerensa collaborated with poet Charles Anthony Silvestri on a new carol for Christmas 2023, titled Seeking You. This will appear on the Chorus’s next release, Saint Louis Passions (Regent Records, fall 2025). Kerensa's final work as our Composer-in-Residence was a Missa Brevis, premiered in April 2025, and scored for double choir and youth chorus. Elsewhere, Kerensa’s full scale Requiem was recorded by the choir of King’s College, London (Delphian), and several works, like A Tender Shoot and Media Vita, have proven popular with choirs both in Great Britain and abroad.
Mårten Jansson
2019 – 2021
Mårten lives with his family in the Swedish city of Uppsala, where he was born in 1965. A graduate of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, he spent many years working with Carmen, a prominent choir for women’s voices. To this experience he attributes much of his early success, often writing for female voices. Even now he is a teacher, which he combines with a conducting and composing career; the latter has brought invitations to present at choral symposia throughout Europe, most recently in Germany and Latvia. In England, his works have won the admiration of various ensembles, including VOCES8, Apollo5, and Chantage—who released a CD devoted to his music.
In 2012 Mårten was elected to the Society of Swedish Composers (FST), around the time that he began in earnest writing for mixed voices. His first efforts, for the Royal Chapel in Stockholm and various German choirs, attracted the attention and then support of Bärenreiter Edition, for whom he now writes exclusively. This distinguished publisher promotes Mårten’s works worldwide, with the result that his music is heard and recorded on both sides of the Atlantic. Following the warm reception given here to two of his earlier pieces, the Chamber Chorus commissioned from him Tonight I Dance Alone, to open our 62nd season. This piece may be heard on our website, and as a result of this positive collaboration, Mårten was invited to succeed Melissa Dunphy as our Composer-in-Residence.
He first wrote for us Hope setting a verse by Charles Anthony Silvestri, with whom he had collaborated on Tonight I Dance Alone. With Tony he subsequently produced his Requiem Novum, to be performed by the soprano Anna Dennis, the VOCES8 Foundation choir and the Philharmonia Orchestra in the UK. For his final year as our Composer-in-Residence Mårten was asked to create two cycles of Swedish carols (Luciasvit and Mamma Basta), and their first performance was given in December 2021, with Luciasvit being repeated at the May 2022 performance. The Chamber Chorus will give the North American premiere of his motet, Lead Me, Lord, at its October 2023 concert.
It’s ironic that Mårten’s artistic creed is “my music is my own and I have never tried to be original;” for he is so often original in the way he treats familiar texts, or how he conveys universal emotions. He takes inspiration from a variety of sources, principal of which are his faith and his family. As Mårten gains even greater popularity in North America, we look forward to collaborating with him as a gift not only to St. Louis, but also to the wider musical community.
Melissa Dunphy
2014 – 2018
Visit Melissa's website for information.
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Following the pieces she wrote for the Chamber Chorus during her residency Melissa subsequently composed several other works for the Chorus, including her Suite Remembrance, and Waves of Gallipoli, both of which are published by E. C. Schirmer. In 2024, the Chamber Chorus gave in April the world première of her Ode to Hope (Sophocles’ “Antigone”), and in November the first performance of her arrangement of Hurt (Nine Inch Nails). She will also be one of the composers commissioned to write a new work for our 70th anniversary season (2025 - 2026).
Yakov Gubanov
2011 – 2014
It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Yakov Gubanov, long-time friend of the Chamber Chorus and our third ‘Composer-in-Residence.’ After a short struggle with an aggressive cancer, Yakov passed away on 21 March in Vienna, Austria, where he lived with his wife, Enrica.
It was through Enrica, in fact, that Yakov came to our notice, when she encouraged him to write to us directly about his recent foray into choral music. After a lengthy career composing symphonic and instrumental works, he had written Beata Et Venerabilis for an Italian ensemble whose rendition on CD then won a European recording award. We performed this piece and invited Yakov to write more for us. The fruits of our new relationship included The Garden of Roses (which we reprised just this past December), …and lead them to Paradise, and Raduysja Devo. Even when his formal association ended, Yakov remained a friend of the choir, and two seasons ago he returned to St. Louis for the world première of his Campane Pasquali. His works were characterized by rich harmonies very much in the Orthodox tradition, and a keen ear for melody. Every note was precious to him, and he would explain carefully to artistic director Philip Barnes how the musical progressions in each piece mirrored the text: there was no waste or superfluity.
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As a teenager composer in Moscow, Yakov had sought out Dmitri Shostakovitch and asked for guidance. The great Russian composer was so impressed with the young man from Kyiv that he encouraged him to return often and study informally with him. Thus, Yakov became Shostakovich’s last student, and he was forever inspired by their relationship over several years. Following years of teaching at his alma mater, the Moscow Conservatoire, Yakov moved to the USA where he served as Composer-in-Residence for the Harvard Film Archive and then taught at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Following retirement, he moved with his wife Enrica to her Italian homeland and lived in Orvieto, and then Città del Pieve. Latterly, the Gubanovs moved to Vienna for its vibrant musical atmosphere.
Yakov was a charming person, endowed with both inspiration and insight. Our Artistic Director, Philip Barnes, remembers him thus: “Yakov and Enrica welcomed me to their home in Orvieto where his love of history and culture made him the perfect guide. His tenderness towards animals, especially his cats, was endearing, and he was keenly aware of his blessings. Later, in Città del Pieve, I accompanied him to an amazing Good Friday service at the Convent of St. Lucy, one of the only occasions in the year when the church was open to the public, where we marveled at the simple beauty of the music and its setting. Finally, Yakov and I gave presentations to the Christmas Readings of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, in happier times before the Ukrainian invasion. To be guided around a city that he knew so well was an extraordinary privilege, and he and Enrica could not have been kinder nor more welcoming. Trudging around the Kremlin with him, seemingly oblivious to the snow enveloping us, was both bone-chilling and hilarious – no blizzard was going to rob him of his daily walk! Indeed, any time spent with Yakov was memorable, and I am blessed to have known him and his music.”
The singers and audiences of the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus who knew Yakov and performed his music are grateful for his unique gift, and to his widow, Enrica, and daughter, Tanya, we extend our sincere condolences.
Clare Maclean
2006 – 2011
Clare Maclean was born in Timaru, New Zealand in 1958. She studied composition at Wellington Polytechnic with Gillian Bibby, and at Sydney University with Peter Sculthorpe. While studying in Sydney, she joined the then Sydney University Chamber Choir (now the Sydney Chamber Choir) under Nicholas Routley, singing music from the Renaissance to the present, with a focus on both early and contemporary music.
The experience of singing this repertoire was important in the development of Clare’s musical language, which has been influenced by Renaissance polyphony and the use of modes; her music often combines aspects of different styles, and sometimes quotations from past music. These musical threads, which continue through changing musical conventions, have come to symbolise for her the presence of the changeless transcendent in the passing of time, which she interprets in terms of a Christian faith.
Clare has taught aural and harmony at Sydney University and at the University of Western Sydney, where she is now a Senior Lecturer, and from where she earned both a master’s degree and doctorate in Creative Arts, studying under Bruce Crossman. She lives in Penrith, Sydney, with her husband, the poet, pastor and composer, John Carroll.
Sasha Johnson Manning
1998 – 2006
Born in Manchester UK), Sasha Johnson Manning studied voice, cello & composition at the Royal Academy of Music. After some years in London, Sasha returned to the north west of England to perform and teach. She served on the faculty of Withington School and sang with the Britten Singers (formerly the BBC Northern Singers) with whom she made numerous broadcasts and recordings. She continues to sing regularly & record for BBC Radio Four’s “Daily Service,” in addition to wide variety of radio and television programs in Europe and Israel.
​For many years Sasha also directed the music at St. Mary’s Parish Church in Bowdon, a church with a long and illustrious music tradition where both she and Philip Barnes were once choristers (see the photo above of Sasha and Philip at the Church in 1998). Her work at Bowdon included several broadcasts, and she took the choir to deputize at many of the great English cathedrals. Her earlier compositions were written for this choir, for her students at Withington School, and also for other vocal ensembles in which she herself sang.
Gradually, however, her music gained a wider audience through commissions, especially from the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus. For us she wrote a series of pieces that ultimately comprised a large-scale, unaccompanied Requiem. The complete work received its world premiere in May 2006, and may now be heard on our CD Saint Louis Commissions (Regent Records). In addition to this major work, Sasha has written other works for us that are listed on our Repertoire page. Most recently she created two Odes (both recorded for Regent Records), In The Land of Song and A Spiritual Musick.
This exposure to American audiences led to commissions from other St. Louis groups, including motets for the choir of Holy Communion Church (University City); anthems and instrumental works for Third Baptist Church (Grand Center); carols & motets for St. Peter’s Church (Ladue); solo songs for Washington University; choral songs for Parkway North High School. In 2000 Sasha also wrote a setting of the Evening Canticles for a joint evensong at Manchester Cathedral (UK) sung by her Bowdon choir and that of St. Peter’s (Ladue), and this was subsequently commercially recorded by the latter. Other settings of both the canticles and the mass have been performed in the cathedrals of Norwich, Wells, Winchester, Worcester, and at York Minster. Non-liturgical pieces include a series of ‘jingles’ for BBC Radio Five, a large-scale work for chorus and orchestra, and a birthday tribute for the composer John Joubert, with performance in Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and London’s Royal Albert Hall, as well as various universities. In 2012, the BBC commissioned her to write The People’s Passion Mass with words by Michael Symmons Roberts. This was a national event performed by choirs not only throughout the UK, but also in Europe, Africa and the USA.
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Sasha has also written a series of primer pieces for beginning instrumentalists, and several musicals for children; one commission for Withington School was titled 2001 Space Iliad. Her best-known work is The Manchester Carols (published by Faber), a collaboration with the distinguished poet Carol Ann Duffy, which won the 2009 ‘Jerusalem Award’ for a Christmas broadcast, and may be heard on a NAXOS recording. Her Out Of My Soul’s Depths, written for Third Baptist Church (Grand Center), has been published by E. C. Schirmer in the USA. Other performers with whom Sasha has become particularly associated are the recorder virtuoso John Turner and the baritone Mark Rowlinson, and they have both recorded her music.
As a soprano soloist, Sasha’s extensive oratorio repertoire ranges from Monteverdi’s Vespers to Francis Poulenc’s Gloria. She has toured Germany with the Academy of St. Martin’s-in-the-fields singing Haydn’s Creation, and has similarly toured Holland and Belgium with the guitarist Paco Peña, singing his Missa Flamenca. Sasha has also performed with the Deller Consort in concerts in France and Germany and was a soloist with them in a production of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas, presented in Turin and Sicily, and later in Bèthune, broadcast by French television. In England, Sasha has sung with countertenor Michael Chance at the Stour Music Festival and has recently sung in performances of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Haydn’s Creation and Saint-Saëns’s Requiem. She has performed and recorded works by Henry Purcell with the Orchestra of the Golden Age and made guest appearances with the early music group Musical Offering in works by Handel, Purcell, Scarlatti and Telemann. In September 2001, Sasha made her movie début in My Kingdom, which starred Richard Harris and Lynn Redgrave.