Interview, Roxanna Panufnik reflects on her career as a composer

Roxanna Panufnik has received the Outstanding Works Collection award at this year’s Ivors, in recognition of her enormous and widely-performed body of compositions, many but by no means all sacred choral works. Brought up in a musical household (her father was a conductor and composer himself), she studied at the Royal Academy of Music and quickly began to develop a reputation as a composer of considerable talent.

Perhaps her best-known work is the Westminster Mass, an exultant and harmonically luscious work commissioned by Westminster Cathedral Choir and performed regularly by ambitious choirs around the world. That being said, her most widely-heard piece could well be the Sanctus that she was commissioned to write for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in 2023, which is thought to have been watched by nearly half a billion people worldwide.

We spoke to Roxanna about her career as a composer and about the influences that have shaped her.

This feels a bit like a career retrospective, even though you’re very much still going! What would you say have been the consistent things you’ve always adhered to in your music?

I think it’s the desire to only create music that I’d like to hear - e.g. when figuring out harmonic progressions there are options which definitely feel ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. I have been blessed with a wide variety of commissions and contexts - I hope that will continue!

Looking at it the other way - are there any moments in your career that stand out as big changes in direction?

It has to be 9/11 and becoming a mother for the first time. These two events impacted how I saw the world and how I could make it a safer place for my child(-ren - over the following 4 years). The realisation that so many of our faiths have so much in common, yet we never talk about that and only see conflicts between those faiths in our media. So much of my work since then has been trying to create musical bridges between faiths.

How important a role have partnerships and collaborations played in your work over the years?

HUGELY important, My longest standing and most vital partnership is with writer Jessica Duchen - we've written 2 operas together and multiple vocal and choral-orchestral works. I view my publishers (Peters Edition/Wise Music Classical) very much as my 'team' - they help me achieve my compositional dreams and give me continuous, unwavering support.

Composers probably hate questions like this, but is there one work - or a few - that you’re especially proud of?

That’s so hard! When I look back on my works how I feel about them is influenced hugely by the working experience, with commissioner and performers. I have absolutely LOVED working with Garsington Opera (with librettist Jessica, director Karen Gillingham and conductor Dougie Boyd) and conductor Marin Alsop who brings a unique energy and insight to the pieces we work on together. 

What would you still like to do, musically speaking, that you haven’t yet had the opportunity to do?

A full-scale main-house opera, please! 

Is there anything currently ‘under construction’ that you’re able to drop any hints about?

Yes! Just finishing a piece for the Philippine Philharmonic that combines traditional Polish and Filipino music and about to start a large-scale multi-faith, choral-orchestral (that’s a lot of hyphens…) piece for 4 international co-commissioners.