The third movement of Roxanna Panufnik’s Mass for Organ will be premiered by Andrew Forbes

The third movement of Roxanna Panufnik’s Mass for Organ will be premiered by Andrew Forbes, Director of Music at Glasgow Cathedral, in a recital presented by the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition (NIIOC) at First Church, Rosemary Street, Belfast, on 2 May.

Panufnik’s Agnus Dei cum jubilo has been commissioned by NIIOC with funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s National Lottery Programme. The Kyrie from the Mass was funded by a private individual; the Gloria cum jubilo was written for the Interpretation Competition at the 2021 St Alban’s International Organ Festival and the final Sanctus and Benedictus movement has been commissioned by Andrew Forbes for the world premiere performance of the complete organ mass at the Glasgow Cathedral Festival, of which he is Artistic Director, in September 2025. 

Richard Yarr MBE DL, Chairman of NIIOC, said: ‘Andrew was the winner of our competition in 2014, and the St Alban’s International Organ Festival is our partner festival, so this performance will tie some of our connections together nicely. It’s a very exciting moment for us to premiere our second commission, by another wonderful woman composer, following Where the Birds Sing by Grace-Evangeline Mason, commissioned for our tenth anniversary in 2022 by the Commission for Victims and Survivors and premiered by our 2013 competition winner Richard Gowers.

Roxanna Panufnik will be present at the Belfast recital, which is part of First Church’s Music in May series and will be given on the church’s highly regarded Lewis organ. Commenting on the commission, the composer said: ‘Ever since composing Kyrie cum Jubilo 13 years ago, I’ve longed to complete a mass for solo organ. I’m so excited and grateful to Richard Yarr and NIIOC and organist Andrew Forbes, who have enabled me to complete my mass, starting in Belfast in May and finishing in Glasgow in September.’

‘Each movement of the Mass is based on a plainsong melody from a 12th-century Mass “In solemnities and feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, also known as “Cum jubilo”. In the Agnus Dei, sometimes the plainsong is implied as the top line of shifting harmonies or it becomes a high, “celestial” accompaniment to something else. There are references to the other movements in my Mass (although I’ve yet to compose the Sanctus & Benedictus!) especially in the last “have mercy on us”, where the scalic passages of my Kyrie Cum Jubilo take on modes from Japan, India, Turkey and Greece to form a global quest for mercy and then peace.’

Andrew Forbes said: ‘My first encounter with the Mass was in the St Albans International Organ Festival 2021, where the Gloria was the set piece for the final. Picking up this movement – the largest and most technically demanding of the mass – in just a few weeks was challenging but hugely satisfying; the music has such a distinctive character and its energy is truly infectious.

‘I’ve performed it and the Kyrie in numerous recitals, often hoping at some point there would be a complete mass. The links between Glasgow Cathedral and NIIOC (with several winners hosted for prize recitals), along with the partnership between St Albans and NIIOC, made a collaboration a very natural way to achieve this completion. What better year to celebrate this than during the 850th anniversary of the city of Glasgow, which began as a place of refuge and diverse community, and has continued to be so over the years, reflected in its current strapline of “People Make Glasgow”. 

‘The music of the Missa cum jubilo embodies a message of hope, and of cultures combining to work together; it therefore feels perfectly appropriate that same spirit is what led to these final two movements being commissioned. Roxanna’s writing is clear, direct, and conveys so well the meaning of the mass title – “with joy”. I have built the rest of my recital programme around this theme, either with direct references to enlightenment, or with pieces that share the same sense of optimism. It includes works ranging from Debussy, and Dubois to James Horner and The Beatles.’

Organ Serenades for a May Evening, an hour-long recital by Andrew Forbes, takes place at 7.30pm on Friday, 2 May at First Church, Rosemary Street, Belfast. Entry is free but there will be a retiring collection in aid of NIIOC and music at First Church.