[TR24][OF] Gareth Malone - Music For Healing - 2019 (Modern Classical, Choral)

Broadcaster and chart-topping choirmaster Gareth Malone today announces Music for Healing, his brand-new album on Decca Records/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company, featuring solo piano, choir and strings, to be released on 8th November. Each piece is named after a month of the year, reflecting the essential role that the natural rhythms of time play in the process of healing and restoration.
In recent years, Gareth has worked with communities that have been through very challenging times. 2018 was also personally challenging as it brought a busy filming schedule at a time of change: his grandfather passed away and his wife was expecting their third child. Musicmaking took on a new, therapeutic quality for Gareth, and Music for Healing came into being.
Returning to his first instrument, the piano, Gareth wanted to combine its natural acoustic with the warmth of a choir and the energy of a string quartet to create a very special album: “After many years conducting choirs under extraordinary circumstances, for example the Military Wives choir, I felt that I had neglected my first love: writing music. I bought a new piano in 2016, began to practice in earnest and to compose. Around that time, I worked on the Choir for the Invictus Games, an incredible experience but an emotional one. I moved from that to work with friends of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire: another life changing and life affirming project. Music for Healing is a personal journey through the year and is inspired by my own feelings about each month: birthdays of loved ones, marriages, funerals – all are in this music. This music helped me to heal.”
Decca Records’ Vice President Tom Lewis said: “Gareth has created a tonic for us all with an album that can soundtrack a vital moment of escape. His music is intimate, small, pure and personal, yet it has the power to bring calm and to heal. He has revealed himself to be a composer and musician of extraordinary tenderness and has created a year-long musical companion to help you unwind and relax. I hope it reaches and helps as many people as possible”
Over the past decade, Gareth Malone has transformed the British choral scene through his award-winning TV series’, concert tours and recordings. He first appeared on TV in the three-part BBC documentary series The Choir in 2006, taking students who had never sung before to compete in the World Choir Games in China. Several series of The Choir followed, and, in a new direction, Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys explored issues around how boys are educated.
The Choir: Military Wives saw Gareth undertaking a highly emotional challenge giving a voice to the wives and girlfriends left behind while troops were deployed to Afghanistan resulting in a Christmas No. 1 with the single “Wherever You Are”. In spring 2019, Gareth helped pupils from Kensington Aldridge Academy – the school next to Grenfell Tower – create a concert to mark the reopening of their building. BBC Two's The Choir: Our School by the Tower tells an extremely moving story of those determined to re-build their lives.
In 2012 Gareth was made OBE in the Queen's birthday honours for services to music. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and was awarded Freedom of the City of London in 2010.
On October 8th, Gareth lead the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at Classic FM Live/Decca 90 Gala – part of the 90th birthday celebrations of the iconic British label – performing the hit single “Wherever You Are” and new tracks from his new album Music for Healing at London’s Royal Albert Hall. On October 9th, he travelled to the Cheltenham Literature Festival for a Decca 90 panel discussion looking at how the iconic British label has survived and thrived over the last ninety years.
Since he shot to fame over ten years ago, Gareth has revolutionised choir singing in Britain and his impact has been felt across the globe. With the release of Music for Healing, he hopes his compositions will bring peace and tranquillity into the homes of those who have endured hardships, uniting people with the transcendental power of music, and sharing his own experiences with the wider world.
“This music helped me to heal” (Gareth Malone)