‘Music has the capacity to breathe harmony into the soul. The Peacemakers breathes the harmony of peace.’ Terry Waite CBE

‘As a composer, he recognises no boundaries - musical, commercial, geographical or cultural. His is a way of thinking and composing that is perfectly in tune with the spirit of the times.’ Classic FM Magazine

The Peacemakers, a brand new choral work composed by Karl Jenkins, offers inspiration and solace for a time in need of both. It features texts from some of the greatest peacemakers throughout history, including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Anne Frank and Mother Teresa, as well as words from the Bible and the Qur’an with some new text specially written by Terry Waite.

“The Peacemakers is dedicated to the memory of all those who lost their lives during armed conflict and, in particular, innocent civilians (...), it was [written] with the hope of looking forward to a century of peace. Sadly, nothing much has changed.” The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace has been enormously successful, having been performed nearly 1000 times in 20 different countries since the CD was released in 2001. In a sense, The Peacemakers could be seen as a sequel to The Armed Man.

“In The Peacemakers,” Jenkins continues, “one line from the 13th-century Persian mystic poet Rumi sums up the ethos of the piece: ‘All religions, all singing one song: Peace be with you’. Many of the other ‘contributors’ are figures who have shaped history, others are less well known. I have occasionally placed some text in a musical environment that helps identify its origin or culture: the bansuri (Indian flute) and tabla in the Gandhi; the shakuhachi (a Japanese flute associated with Zen Buddhism) and temple bells in that of the Dalai Lama; African percussion in the Mandela; and echoes of the blues of the deep American South (as well as a quote from Schumann’s Träumerei (Dreaming) in my tribute to Martin Luther King. ‘Healing Light: a Celtic prayer’ is with uilleann pipes and bodhrán drums. “