PRESS RELEASE - 10 December

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WOW - WOMEN OF THE WORLD ANNOUNCE WORLD PREMIERE OF NEW CHORAL PIECE BY ERROLLYN WALLEN COMMISSIONED TO CELEBRATE 15 YEARS OF WOW

• New choral commission by multi award-winning composer Errollyn Wallen CBE will open WOW and the Royal Albert Hall’s special one-off event.

• Celebrating 15 years of WOW’s global movement, the commission will be performed by an intergenerational choir of 150 women, girls and non-binary people aged between 8 - 80.

• Taking place on International Women’s Day 2025, WOW at 15 will also feature a rare UK appearance by legendary activist Angela Davis, with further speakers and performances to be announced.

• Tickets for WOW at 15 are on sale now.

WOW - Women of the World have today announced a new choral commission by multi-award winning composer Errollyn Wallen CBE which will receive its world premiere on International Women’s Day as part of WOW at 15 at the Royal Albert Hall. Commissioned by WOW to celebrate the global movement’s 15 year history, the piece for choir and organ is a celebration of women, girls and non-binary people everywhere, with music and lyrics inspired by the work of WOW.

A major highlight of WOW’s 15th anniversary year, WOW at 15 will celebrate the significant impact WOW has made shifting the dial on gender equity, and look to the future to discuss the urgent challenges that still need to be overcome. WOW Founder Jude Kelly CBE will lead this huge celebration with an evening of big ideas and conversations, laughter, joy, stories, music and performance. Legendary activist Angela Davis will make a rare UK appearance as one of the event headliners in a conversation with Jude Kelly honouring her life and achievements, alongside a bill of world-class speakers, activists and artists with further guests to be announced.

Opening the event, the choral commission will be performed by an intergenerational choir made up of 150 women, girls and non-binary people aged between eight and 80 years from Mulberry School for Girls, St Boniface School and Lips, a London based trans-inclusive women’s choir.

One of the most performed living composers of classical music in the world, Errollyn Wallen is a celebrated composer and performer with a prolific output that spans orchestral, chamber and vocal works. Groundbreaking in the history of classical music, Wallen was the first living female composer and first Black woman to have a work featured in the BBC Proms, as well as the first woman to receive an Ivor Novello award for Classical Music.

Errollyn Wallen says: “I am delighted to be part of WOW 15 and honoured to be contributing a new work that celebrates WOW’s commitment to gender equity across the world. I look forward to sharing a musical moment of powerful solidarity and energy with the audience in the astonishing Royal Albert Hall.”

The evening will also feature the world premiere of a newly commissioned fanfare for the Royal Albert Hall’s 153-year-old 9,999 pipe organ written by award-winning composer Isobel Waller-Bridge and performed by renowned organist, conductor, broadcaster and composer Anna Lapwood.

Over the past 15 years, WOW Festivals and events have taken place in 45 locations on six continents celebrating women, girls and non-binary people. Attracting five million people worldwide, WOW has supported thousands of activists, brought previously taboo subjects into mainstream dialogue and acted as a catalyst for the launch and success of countless campaigns.

WOW at 15 will be the first of several events in 2025 marking WOW’s 15th anniversary, with further details being announced in the new year.

Tickets for WOW at 15 start from £20 with 200 £10 tickets allocated for community and school groups.

The WOW Choral Commission is made possible with support from the Richard Attenborough Charitable Trust. With thanks to support from The Julia Rausing Trust and public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The WOW Foundation is proudly supported by its Global Founding Partner Bloomberg and Global Girls Champion Standard Chartered.

LISTINGS

Royal Albert Hall and WOW - Women of the World Present

WOW at 15

Saturday 8 March 2025

Starts: 7pm, Doors: 6.15pm

The Royal Albert Hall

Kensington Gore, South Kensington, London SW7 2AP

Box Office

Open 9am – 9pm daily at Door 12 (except when there is no show in the auditorium and we close at 5pm).

Our phones are open Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm on 020 7589 8212.

Tickets from £20

BSL Interpreted and live captioned

-ENDS

For further information please contact

Kate Hassell kate@breadandbutterpr.uk

Errollyn Wallen

In 2024, His Majesty The King appointed Errollyn Wallen CBE as Master of the King’s Music, the first appointment to this role under his reign. She succeeded Dame Judith Weir CBE.

Commenting on her new role, Errollyn said: 'I am thrilled to accept this royal appointment. It will be a privilege and a great honour to serve His Majesty The King, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. I look forward to championing music and music-making for all.”

Errollyn Wallen was born in Belize before moving to the UK at the age of two. She is a composer, pianist and singer-songwriter who studied music and composition at Goldsmiths, King’s College London and King’s College, Cambridge. Her work includes 22 operas and a range of orchestral, chamber and vocal compositions. Her recent violin concerto, composed for soloist Philippe Quint, has already received thirteen performances since its première in March 2024 and the recording will be released in April 2025. This summer Errollyn recorded a disc of her orchestral works at Abbey Road Studios for the label Resonus Classics which will also be released in 2025.

Errollyn was commissioned to compose pieces to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees. She has also composed works for the BBC Proms and other international events including the COP26 summit and the 2012 Paralympic Games. In 2023 she was ranked among the Top 20 most performed living classical composers.

Errollyn was the first black woman to have a work featured in the Proms and the first woman to receive an Ivor Novello award for Classical Music for her body of work.

Errollyn Wallen was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2007 by His Majesty The King (as Prince of Wales) and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 2020 by the Princess Royal.

As a broadcaster, she has worked on several documentary programmes including Classical Commonwealth for Radio 3 which explored the impact of colonialism on music across the Commonwealth and which was short-listed for the Prix Europa.

Her book Becoming a Composer was published by Faber in November 2023.

About The WOW Foundation

The WOW Foundation was created by Jude Kelly CBE in 2018 to run the global movement that is WOW - Women of the World Festivals. The Festivals began in the UK in 2010, launched by Kelly at the Southbank Centre London, where she was Artistic Director, to celebrate women and girls, taking a frank look at what prevents them from achieving their potential, raising awareness globally of the issues they face, and discussing solutions together.

To date, WOW has reached six million people in 45 locations on six continents, in locations including Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, the UK and the USA.

Over the last 15 years the Festivals have developed a reputation as a space for world renowned artists, activists, thinkers and performers including Angela Davis, Malala Yousafzai, Annie Lennox, Patrick Stewart, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Salma Hayek, to come and participate, alongside thousands of women and girls who don’t have public profiles but are doing amazing things. WOW provides platforms for people of all kinds, changes attitudes, brings communities together and provides a unique space for people to work together towards gender equity in their own communities.

One example of the Festival’s impact came in 2015, with the founding of the Women’s Equality Party by Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer.

In 2018 Kelly left the Southbank Centre to run The WOW Foundation full time as a charity working to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is possible and desirable through festivals and empowering women and girls. The unique festival model creates numerous pathways for participants to take part in WOW projects, amplify their own causes, or start new initiatives which have a wide impact on communities. It is the biggest, most comprehensive and most significant festival dedicated to presenting work by women and promoting equity for women and girls.

WOW Festival was originally produced and presented by Southbank Centre.

The President of WOW - Women of the World is Her Majesty The Queen.

About the Royal Albert Hall:

The Royal Albert Hall is the world’s most famous stage. Throughout its 152-year history, it has welcomed a who’s who of world-renowned figures: artists, athletes and activists. No other place on earth has played host to Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Muhammad Ali; Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles and Adele. This was the Suffragettes’ “temple of liberty” – the site of Votes for Women rallies that helped change the course of British history – the home of the Stonewall concerts, and a place of celebration during Nelson Mandela’s state visit. But its eccentric history has also seen it used for a séance, an indoor marathon and the world’s first bodybuilding contest (judged by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

In an ordinary year, the Hall’s extraordinary auditorium presents around 400 world-class events: encompassing rock, pop and classical music, theatre, dance, films, Cirque du Soleil and sport. It typically welcomes 1.8 million visitors a year, while its 1,000 events in secondary spaces help to attract a young, diverse audience. Its Engagement programme includes music therapy, concerts in the

community, and workshops with A-list artists, often in collaboration with other charities, such as Nordoff Robbins and Music for Youth.

About Bloomberg

Bloomberg – the global business, financial information and news leader – is a founding supporter of WOW - Women of the World Festivals. Bloomberg has long supported organisations and causes that advance gender equality and seek to address challenges women face around the world, from maternal and reproductive health to women’s economic empowerment and inspiring the new generation of female leaders. Bloomberg has proudly supported WOW Festivals since 2012 www.bloomberg.com/women

About Standard Chartered

We are a leading international banking group, with a presence in 52 of the world’s most dynamic markets. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good.

Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

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