Page 15 - Forbes L'Estrange How can I keep from singing

Joanna Forbes L’Estrange (b.1971) is a British soprano, choral director and one of the RSCM’s best-selling composers. Growing up in Surrey, she studied the piano and cello and sang as a chorister in her local parish church choir, later graduating with a Master of Arts degree from Oxford University. Her career began with seven years at the helm of the five-time Grammy® Award-winning vocal group, The Swingle Singers, an experience which infuses her compositions with inflections of jazz and close-harmony vocal textures.
With an ever-expanding catalogue of church choral pieces, Christmas carols and secular songs, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange is celebrated for composing tuneful, approachable, well-crafted music which all choirs can enjoy singing. Describing herself as “a composer who writes from the perspective of a singer”, she says “when I’m recording the part-learning tracks for one of my pieces, if something doesn’t feel nice to sing, I rewrite it”.
Heaven To Earth, an album of church choral pieces by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, has been recorded by London Voices (SIGCD790). The 21 tracks include The Mountains Shall Bring Peace, commissioned to mark the coronation of King Charles III and sung that year by more than 600 choirs across the world. joannaforbeslestrange.com/new-music-for-choirs