Creations: story-songs for soloists, chorus and orchestra was written from 1997-98 as part of the ‘Adopt a Composer’ pilot scheme supported by the Society for the Promotion of New Music and the National Federation of Music Societies, with additional support form the Francis Chagrin Fund. The scheme linked up a composer with a chorus which was expanding its contemporary repertory. I had the good fortune to be adopted by Southwell Choral Society and its director, Nicolas Thorpe, who premiered Creations along with excerpts from Haydn’s The Creation on 30 May 1998 in Southwell Minster.