Nico Muhly in the Choral World
Nico Muhly in the Choral World
The American composer Nico Muhly has written over one hundred published works for choirs in some shape or form. He is uniquely placed within the choral universe and the British choral tradition through his long-time collaborators and fellow friends in the music world.
Muhly's choral writing is refreshing to listen to and appealing to sing - there is very likely just the piece you need for nearly every notable date in the liturgical calendar. There are also a number of more sizeable works for chorus with ensemble or orchestra for all manner of performance occasions, from live events in the concert hall to cross art form experiences involving dance and multimedia.
Now in 2026, activity has reached a noteworthy point, marked by two new recordings, various premieres and residencies, all coming together to cement Muhly's place in this much loved choral area of the cultural landscape.
"I am enormously proud to announce two upcoming recordings of two very different collections of choral music" says Nico Muhly. "No Resting Place is the result of a ten year collaboration with The Tallis Scholars, and includes long- and short-form settings of Thomas Traherne, the final diary entries of Robert Falcon Scott in Antarctica, and a setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet interwoven with interviews with members of the Windrush Generation. I grew up listening to the Tallis Scholars’s recordings of Tye, Sheppard, and, of course, Tallis; my relationship with that polyphonic music is, I hope, clear in these six new pieces.
"With Eys Lift Up includes my complete body of work written for the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford. This recording includes music for ordinary time, as well as the entire church year from Advent through Ascensiontide and Trinity Sunday. Writing sacred music, as all of the music for Magdalen is, is a project quite removed from writing concert music: it’s music for use, site- and time-specific, down to the time of day at which it is sung. It exists outside of the standard economy of classical music performances inasmuch as it is explicitly part of a ritual, and in constant dialogue with scripture and the great cycle of the church year.
"I am grateful to Peter Phillips, conductor of The Tallis Scholars and Mark Williams, Informator Choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford, for entrusting me with their fantastic choirs, and for their meticulous and joyful documentation of these bodies of work."
NO RESTING PLACE
‘No Resting Place’ is a collection of world premiere recordings of works that Muhly wrote for The Tallis Scholars over the last 10 years, by invitation of their director Peter Phillips. Phillips says that Muhly ‘immediately understood our particular sound. A succession of masterpieces followed, each as powerful as the last.’
The title work, No Resting Place, is a setting of Jeremiah’s Lamentations, interspersed with contemporary interviews with people from the Windrush generation. Recordare, Domine also sets texts from Lamentations, while Marrow is a setting of Psalm 63. Rough Notes, using cold textures, austere counterpoint and unstable harmonies, draws from Captain Scott’s diary on his doomed mission to the Antarctic. Prosperitie was written to celebrate Peter Phillips’ 70th birthday, and A Glorious Creature praises the glory of the soul. This album also marks the start of a new collaboration between The Tallis Scholars and Linn Records.
'No Resting Place' is released on Friday March 13, 2026
The first single, Rough Notes, is out now.
Nico Muhly with members of The Tallis Scholars
WITH EYS LIFT UP
The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford under the direction of their Informatur Choristarum Mark Williams, will release a new collection of choral works, many of which have been commissioned by them.
Drawing inspiration from many sources, this eclectic collection comprises an impressive range of music for standard time (a mass, a set of canticles, some anthems for general worship) as well as music for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascensiontide, and Trinity Sunday. The album will be released by CORO Records.
'With Eys Lift Up' is released on Friday May 15, 2026
Nico Muhly with Mark Williams and the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford
RESIDENCIES
Nico Muhly is the inaugural Composer in Residence at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
The launching of this collaboration coincides with celebrations of the Cathedral Choir’s 500th year, and will see Muhly build a collection of works over the coming years. The first commission to result from the partnership, a carol based on a text from the 16th York Mystery Play (Herod and the Magi), With Hande and Harte received its first performance on Saturday January 17 in the Cathedral during a special service of music and readings for the season of Epiphany.
A new cantata will be premiered at a special anniversary concert in the Cathedral this summer and later toured internationally. Beyond the new works he will compose, Muhly will be immersed in the musical life of the Foundation, working with young musicians at Christ Church Cathedral School and with our undergraduate students.
“We are delighted to be able to mark such a significant year in the history of the Cathedral Choir by launching this cultural collaboration. It is a great joy that Nico Muhly has accepted our invitation to join us at an important time for the Foundation's music,” said The Very Reverend Professor Sarah Foot, Dean of Christ Church. “This partnership will provide a wonderful opportunity for our young musicians to work with, and be inspired by, a composer and musician of Nico's skill and eminence."
“I’m thrilled and eager to start my work as Christ Church’s inaugural Composer in Residence and meet the college, school and Cathedral communities,” said Nico Muhly. “I hope that the body of work I provide, consisting of works ranging from large-scale compositions to smaller pieces, will offer a musical throughline through daily worship and the church year, voicing the heartbeat of the musical traditions championed in this place for five centuries."
"It’s enormously exciting to see Nico join us at Christ Church as Composer in Residence," writes Peter Holder, Organist (Director of Music) of Christ Church Cathedral. "Recent and present anniversaries – in 2026 for the Cathedral Choir – afford us both an opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary musical heritage we inherit here, but also to look forward in new and distinctive ways. The energy and inspiration that Nico will bring to us, not just in his music, but in coaching our musicians across the Foundation, gives us much to look forward to in the years ahead."
Muhly also continues his work as Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, under David Skinner, with an eye towards finishing a complete set of service music (a mass, canticles, psalm chants) as well as two or three larger format works, including a requiem mass.
PERFORMANCES
See here for listings of future and historical events.
FURTHER READING & LISTENING
The Panther by Nico Muhly at Exeter Cathedral and on BBC Radio 3