Eric Whitacre calls for Christmas poems

27 November 2012, 15:20

Aspiring poets and prose writers will have their work read out at the composer's Christmas concert in Union Chapel in London.

Composer Eric Whitacre is asking aspiring wordsmiths to submit a piece of writing to be read at his Christmas concert. The four chosen submissions will be read between music by Whitacre, Poulenc, Barber, and traditional Christmas carols at the Eric Whitacre Singers concert on 6 December in London.

Whitacre said: "I envisage 250–350 words on the theme of Winter or the Christmas season. It can be beautiful and moving, or clever and fun; it just needs to be heartfelt, honest and human."

Readers will include Classic FM's Jamie Crick, TV presenter Josie D'Arby, James Jolly, Editor in Chief of The Gramophone, and Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University. The concert programme includes Whitacre's well-known choral favourites, including Lux Aurumque and Alleluia, as well as a new arrangement of Silent Night.