While Laura Mvula is world-famous for her success as an R&B singer, few people know that she studied composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Her song Sing to the moon was the title track from her first album released in 2013, making the top 10 in the UK albums chart. Laura recorded an orchestral version of Sing to the moon with the Metropole Orkest & Jules Buckley and she wrote this haunting choral arrangement for the Eric Whitacre Singers. Encouraged by Eric, the premiere was her first experience as a choral conductor. Sing to the moon was performed by the BBC Singers at the last night of the Proms in 2019. Laura fragments the writing in the verses to give a sense of the shattered soul at the centre of the piece, contrasting with the close-textured homophony of the choruses, comforting us in the knowledge that singing has the power to turn the tide.

from notes by Anna Lapwood © 2020