Various - Christopher Wood: Requiem

This work by self-proclaimed non-composer Christopher Wood pays homage to the grief felt around the UK following the passing of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 2002. A former cancer surgeon who now develops life-saving cancer drugs, Wood is a pharmaceutical entrepreneur who had, until 2002, never composed a note of music. But when the Queen Mother passed away, Wood was moved by the people who queued for hours to pay their respects, and felt a strong connection to their grief and sadness, but also their honour, gratitude and patriotic pride. Having been raised in a musical family - Wood�s mother was a soprano in the Welsh National Opera chorus, and he has sung in choirs for his whole life - it is perhaps not surprising that he turned to music as a form of expression. Written around a busy schedule managing a US pharmaceutical company, Wood�s Requiem took eight years to compose. The Requiem was finally recorded and premiered at St John�s Smith Square, in 2012.