Emily Hazrati is a composer, educator and performer based in London. Her journey into composition began with a love of writing for voice, and of narrative and text – leading her to embrace collaborative, interdisciplinary art forms such as opera. Fascinated with blending elements of theatre and vocality outside of their usual contexts, and extending the boundaries of what we understand ‘vocal’ and ‘instrumental’ composition to mean, Emily sees the creation of new sounds as a uniquely open-ended way of understanding the world around us, and a means of inviting our communities to live and breathe this experience together. You can read more about Emily and and her music on our website here.

Emily's new work – commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society as part of the RPS Composers programme – will be performed for the first time at Orkney's St Magnus International Festival by The Marian Consort. Emily says: 'Writing for The Marian Consort’s upcoming programme at St Magnus Festival has been a humbling experience. My new work ‘sāye (shadow)’ combines words by Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh with a fragment from the Latin text of Psalm 23:4, meditating on dualities of light and dark, and juxtaposing bold, dramatic gestures with blurred, liminal sonorities: ‘Et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis, non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.’ (‘Though I walk through the valley in the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.’)

At the time of writing, I was preoccupied by the idea of finding comfort and refuge within darkness; ‘sâye’ is the Farsi word for ‘shadow’ or ‘shade’, but can also be used  figuratively to mean ‘shelter, protection’. It feels especially fitting for the premiere to be taking place in Orkney just two days after the summer solstice, where qualities of light 
and dark, the extreme and in-between meet, perhaps in their most potent states.'

'sāye' joins a programme of sumptuous Renaissance polyphony from one of Scotland’s few surviving sixteenth-century manuscripts. The so-called ‘Dunkeld Music Book’ gives a glimpse of the musical riches being performed in Scotland in the mid-sixteenth century, including motets by Continental composers sourced directly from Paris and Italy, and the beautiful, and more local, anonymous Missa Felix namque.

Programme:

Josquin des Prez Benedicta es caelorum Regina

Plainchant Felix namque

Anonymous Missa Felix namque, Kyrie & Gloria

Pierre Certon Inviolata

Emily Hazrati New Commission

Anonymous Missa Felix namque, Sanctus

Johannes Lupi Salve celeberrima virgo

Emily is one of eight individuals supported by the 2025 RPS Composers programme, giving each a commission and premiere with a noted ensemble, festival or venue, as well as a year of professional development which gives them the chance to meet industry experts and professional composers, furthering their confidence and skills to seek further commissions and premieres of their own. Emily's commission is supported by the Susan Bradshaw Composers' Fund, and we're grateful to RPS Members and a range of trusts and foundations whose generous support makes the RPS Composers programme possible.

You can find out more about RPS Membership and how you can help us support talented musicians like Emily here.

Emily is writing for the Marian Consort. Click the button below to visit the St Magnus International Festival website and book your tickets for the performance.