Paul Mealor @50 - JAM on the Marsh Festival 2025

Paul Mealor @50 - JAM on the Marsh Festival 2025
Paul Mealor
© JAM on the Marsh Festival

Novello composer Paul Mealor will feature at this year’s JAM on the Marsh Festival which takes place in Kent, the UK's 'Garden of England', from July 3-13. Three Mealor @50 feature concerts are programmed alongside an array of other music, theatre, visual art, photography, poetry and education events.

Mealor @50: The Light of Paradise
On Friday July 4 at St Leonard in Hythe, the BBC Singers and Ferio Saxophone Quartet will perform the UK premiere of Mealor’s sixty-minute work The Light of Paradise. Sofi Jeannin will conduct.

The Light of Paradise is Paul Mealor’s exploration of the life of Margery Kempe, the extraordinary medieval mystic whose ecstatic visions and fierce devotion challenged the world around her. Drawing on texts from The Book of Margery Kempe and structured around the Stations of the Cross, this powerful hour-long work transcends traditional forms — neither opera nor oratorio, but something entirely its own. Mealor creates a distinctive sound world: weaving melodic motifs through the choir, interspersed with a flamboyant saxophone quartet, resulting in a deeply moving piece that feels both ancient and startlingly modern. The concert will be recorded for future broadcast by BBC Radio 3.

Mealor @50: Symphony No 2
At St Nicholas, New Romney on Saturday July 5, the Britten Sinfonia will be conducted by the Festival’s Artistic Director John Frederick Hudson in a performance of Mealor’s Symphony No 2 ‘Sacred Places’ alongside Out of Time by Jonathan Dove.

For 30 years, Britten Sinfonia has been redefining what a chamber orchestra can be. For their debut at JAM on the Marsh, they present a thrilling programme that weaves together two festival threads — Mealor @50 and La Belle Époque — while marking three major composer anniversaries: the 100th of Eric Satie’s death, Jonathan Dove’s 65th birthday and Paul Mealor’s 50th. Mealor’s Symphony No.2, written after a visit to the Canadian Rockies, reveals the composer at his creative best, extracting extraordinary colour from strings, piano, and percussion. This event is kindly supported by Orchestras Live.

Mealor @50: The Farthest Shore
Sarah MacDonald and The Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge make their long overdue return to JAM on the Marsh with a concert featuring the last of our Mealor @50 series, The Farthest Shore. Mealor’s forty-minute work will be performed with the addition of Onyx Brass, the Sunflower Singers, the soprano Claire Seaton and bass Philip Tebb in the line-up.

Based on the Celtic legend, 'The Bone Setter', a stranger is washed up on the shore. Speaking in a foreign tongue, accused of spreading disease and disharmony, the village set to drive him out only to discover a miracle. A mesmerising melody by local singers weaves through this dramatic oratorio. The event also includes a performance of the ever-popular 2010 JAM commission Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal. This concert takes place at St Leonard in Hythe on Friday July 11. This concert is supported by the Hinrichsen and VW Foundations.

The King’s Singers have represented the gold standard in a cappella singing on the world’s greatest stages for over fifty years. On Sunday July 6 at All Saints, Lydd the group will perform a selection of favourites, including a new arrangement of Mealor’s Coronation Kyrie which was performed at the coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla.


More information & tickets


About JAM
Founded in 2000, JAM (John Armitage Memorial Trust) has commissioned an immense number of works from some of the most important composers in the UK, influencing the classical music repertoire in the UK and around the world. JAM regularly collaborates with composers, performers and other like-minded organisations.

Through JAM on the Marsh, JAM’s multi-art festival based on Kent’s Romney Marsh piloted in 2013, JAM has grown into a significant, broad multi-arts organisation. JAM on the Marsh works with leading lights in the fields of theatre, visual art, photography, poetry and education, with music still very much at its core. The festival brings arts opportunities and education to this deprived part of the UK, that would not otherwise happen. JAM and JAM on the Marsh are well known and respected by composers, artists, venues, funders and media alike, especially for their collaborations within the UK and further afield, such as in the US and Canada.

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