From 4-6 June 2025 VOCES8 and the VOCES8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra will record and film the world premiere of US rising star composer Taylor Scott Davis’ Requiem. The online video premiere of the work will be in LIVE From London Easter ’26 and the album will be released on 27 March 2026. We are seeking support for the commission, recording and filming of this major work.

This is a unique opportunity to be involved in a new commission and album project, as well as commemorate those you hold dear.

“…And standing there
Till that calm song is done, at last we’ll share
The league-spread, quiring symphonies that are
Joy in the world, and peace, and dawn’s one star.”

Idyll by Siegfried Sassoon (Requiem movt. 3)

Written for VOCES8’s 20th anniversary and uniquely including a movement set to Siegfried Sassoon’s hope infused poem ‘Idyll’, this six-movement Requiem is for all peoples of all faiths or no faith. Anniversaries both celebrate what is past and all of those who have contributed to achieving such a landmark, whilst also heralding future promise – ‘Idyll’ acts as a hopeful turning point, a pivot from darkness to light, from mourning and unsteadiness to tranquillity and hope for the future. Investing in hope and in the Arts right now feels somewhat pivotal.

Alongside the ‘Requiem’, eventual album, ‘i carry your heart’ (working title),  will include other world premiere commissions for choir and orchestra penned by Taylor Scott Davis including commissions for VOCES8 and Texas Master Chorale, alongside Taylor’s stunning arrangement for choir and orchestra of Faure’s famous Cantique de Jean Racine as well as Elgar’s Lux Aeterna and a newly orchestrated arrangement of Taylor’s ‘Stardust’ which is currently 4th most popular in VOCES8’s Spotify playlist and appears on ‘Nightfall’ (Decca).

Taylor is seeking funds to support both the recording and the commission – everything you donate will go towards the project. The total cost of the Commission, Filming and Recording (three days, full orchestra and choir) is £79,500 GBP – Taylor hopes to raise at least half of that sum but anything you give will help the project along.

Listen to the VOCES8 Foundation choir and orchestra perform Taylor's Stardust below:

Conducted by Barnaby Smith at Live From London in 2025.

Taylor notes:

“Inherently, a Requiem exists for living people to petition God on behalf of the departed, so in a sense, it is both for the living and the dead. My goal is to stand in the middle of that delicate balance, channelling the anguish of loss, the idea of appealing to the creator, and giving a voice of hope from the other side. All of which can only be accomplished with a modern understanding of the liturgy, and an embracing of all people’s need to engage with its texts, if not always the beliefs behind them.

People who are nonbelievers, marginalized believers, of faiths who don't rely on ancient Latin and Greek texts, can find solace in the third movement without needing questions answered. For those of us familiar with those texts and their order, I hope Idyll serves as an enhancement to everything that surrounds it.

In days of division such as these, art can build a bridge of commonality, of shared experience and unified aspirations. While it might sound counterintuitive, I believe this requiem is well timed because we all know the weight of loss and grief, and highlighting for 40 minutes what binds us can only help suture our self-inflicted wounds.”

If you’re donating from the US and wish to make a donation larger than $1000 then contact us and we can provide another charitable route through which to donate. If you’d like to co-commission the work or a territory premiere, please contact us.

About Taylor:

RISING STAR US COMPOSER and long-time VOCES8 collaborator, Taylor Scott Davis is best known for his beautifully textured, kaleidoscope settings of texts, and his ability to channel emotion through those in a contemporary and engagingly memorable way. Taylor’s recent premieres have been at Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall and Cadogan Hall. Taylor’s Magnificat was released by Decca on album ‘A Choral Christmas’ in 2023 and ‘Stardust’ appears on VOCES8’s latest album for Decca, ‘Nightfall’, Classic FM has premiered and continues to play his Christmas carol arrangements.

"In the grey summer garden I shall find you
With day-break and the morning hills behind you.
There will be rain-wet roses; stir of wings;
And down the wood a thrush that wakes and sings.
Not from the past you’ll come, but from that deep
Where beauty murmurs to the soul asleep:
And I shall know the sense of life re-born
From dreams into the mystery of morn
Where gloom and brightness meet. And standing there
Till that calm song is done, at last we’ll share
The league-spread, quiring symphonies that are
Joy in the world, and peace, and dawn’s one star."

Idyll by Siegfried Sassoon (Requiem movt. 3)