Festival Voices: MacMillan Seven Last Words from the Cross

For the first time, Kings Place resident ensembles Festival Voices and Phaedra Ensemble join forces for Good Friday, culminating in James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, a modern masterpiece of extraordinary emotional power.

Announced as Kings Place Resident Ensembles from 2027, Festival Voices and Phaedra Ensemble present an ambitious programme spanning more than four centuries of music, bringing together works by Byrd, Reich, Vivek Haria and Missy Mazzoli before culminating in MacMillan’s powerful Seven Last Words from the Cross.

The programme traces a rich lineage of musical ideas, bringing past and present into dialogue. William Byrd’s deeply expressive sacred music stands alongside Steve Reich’s Know What Is Above You, a contemporary reflection on ancient wisdom. Vivek Haria’s ॐ: The Imperishablereceives its world premiere, introducing a new voice to this dialogue, while Missy Mazzoli’s evocative Vesper Sparrow offers music of striking atmosphere and transformation.

Presented on Good Friday, the programme reaches its culmination in James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, widely regarded as one of the composer’s greatest achievements and among the defining choral works of our time. Following Christ’s final utterances from the Cross, the work forms a sequence of extraordinary emotional and dramatic intensity. Drawing on centuries of sacred tradition while embracing a distinctly contemporary musical language, MacMillan creates music of profound conviction, balancing moments of glowing vocal richness with passages of powerful silence. In the hands of Festival Voices and Phaedra Ensemble, this modern masterpiece becomes a deeply moving meditation on faith, identity and inheritance, revealing how the stories and beliefs we inherit continue to shape the present.

This event will last approximately 75 minutes, with an interval.

About Festival Voices

Festival Voices has rapidly built a reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-thinking vocal ensembles. Under the co-artistic direction of founders Gregory Batsleer and Oskar McCarthy, the ensemble creates transformative choral experiences through bold, cross-genre collaboration, with performances at venues including Southbank Centre, Kings Place, the London Handel Festival and Bold Tendencies.

Committed to commissioning new work and collaborating across disciplines, Festival Voices rethinks how and where choral music is heard, engaging new audiences in powerful and unexpected ways. The ensemble’s performances are known for their clarity, precision and emotional depth, offering audiences a choral experience that is both rooted in tradition and creatively ambitious.

About Phaedra Ensemble

Phaedra Ensemble is a London-based contemporary chamber ensemble whose work spans curation, performanc