In 2016, London Oriana Choir launched a ground-breaking venture to champion the talent of women composers in the UK.  The lasting impact of this initiative continues in the choir's activities to this day.

 

The heart of the five15 project was the commissioning of 15 choral works (a cappella and orchestral) from five women over five years (extended to six due to the pandemic), but also included a commitment to increase programming, launch educational projects, issue recordings and other initiatives to raise the profile of classical music written by women and encourage the talents of new writers.

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The highlights were:

 

• The five composers chosen were Cheryl Frances Hoad, Rebecca Dale, Jessica Curry, Anna Disley-Simpson (chosen by a competition amongst 18-24 year olds) and Hannah Kendall, representing a variety of musical styles, ages and backgrounds, exposing the choir to a range of different disciplines.

• All the commissions were performed in our regular concerts in central London venues but we also took them on tour around the UK and Europe.  We continue to include them in our programming to ensure that they are widely heard. 

• We began a series of summer concerts at the Cutty Sark focusing entirely on works by women composers, including helping to relaunch the career of Ailsa Dixon, a British composer whose works had been all but forgotten.

• We increased concert programming of works by women composers, which continues today, totaling 125+ pieces by over 60 mainly contemporary women since 2016, crossing genres, and again many of these works have been performed several times.  We now maintain a consultable database of women composers' works we have performed.

• During Covid, several works received worldwide exposure during our online lockdown concerts which are still available on our YouTube channel. Zoom chats were enjoyed with several high-profile composers during online rehearsals, including Canadian Eleanor Daley and US singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman.

• We appointed renowned British composer Cecilia McDowall our Patron in 2021.

• We organised a final Women Composers Festival concert featuring an all-women programme at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2022, performing several five15 unaccompanied works alongside other choirs from around the country.

• Our 'Her Voice' album of the commissioned a cappella pieces was released in July 2024 as part of the choir’s 50th anniversary celebrations, and is available across all major streaming programmes and on CD. The anniversary also saw a gala performance of a new commission, Here Hum the Bees, by our patron Cecilia McDowall, and a celebrity feature by Beth Nielsen Chapman.

• For our May 2026 concert we will be joined by three other choirs where Cecilia McDowall is patron for a concert in central London dedicated to her music in celebration of her 75th birthday.

• Commissioning continues with the premiere of a work by one of our members, Tara Mack, scheduled for July 2026.  She began composing as a direct result of the five15 initiative and is now part of an in-house collective of new composers in the choir, both male and female, whose works the choir has performed at its concerts in recent years.  

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Find out more:

• The need for the project - results of our survey into awareness of women composers

• Composers and commissions

• Resources and Media

• Project supporters​

 

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