Decca Records is thrilled to unveil the highly anticipated album One World by Sir Karl Jenkins, one of Britain’s most celebrated and performed composers, now recognised worldwide. Commissioned by Nicol Matt, founder and artistic director of the World Choir for Peace, this album presents a profound musical journey that addresses the challenges of our fractured world while heralding a vision of a peaceful and egalitarian planet.

Sir Karl Jenkins’s influence on the world of classical music is undeniable. His monumental work, The Armed Man, recently celebrated a remarkable milestone, spending over 1000 weeks in the UK Official Classical Artist Albums Chart.

His appearance at the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Westminster Abbey caught media attention. His work Tros Y Garreg, an arrangement of a Welsh folk song from his harp concerto Over the Stone, was performed as part of the music programme preceding the Coronation service, with the Official Royal Harpist Alis Huws as soloist. Some humorously speculated he might have been Meghan, Duchess of Sussex in disguise. Sir Karl, known for his moustache since age 18, finds amusement in the media buzz and enjoys receiving free drinks at pubs.

One World is an extraordinary collaboration between the World Choir for Peace, co-founded by Sir Georg Solti and Charles Kaye in 1995, and the World Orchestra for Peace. These two powerful musical forces unite to emphasise the unique strength of music as an ambassador for peace. The album also features the Stay At Home Choir, a global choral community that emerged during the first Covid-19 lockdown, digitally connecting singers during times of isolation. Their powerful video performance of Sir Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man brought together over 5000 singers in a moving online singalong, hosted by Classic FM.

One World delves into the challenges of our fractured world, addressing issues such as populist governments, plagues, climate change, human trafficking, disrespect for basic human rights, terrorism, and war. The album presents a vision of a peaceful and egalitarian planet. Notably, the album includes the voice of Sir Karl Jenkins himself, chanting on the track ‘Savitur’, meaning ‘the inner sun’. Originally intended as a guide track only, the repeated words of this meditation aid resonated with listeners, leading to its inclusion in the recording. This marks the first time the composer’s vocals have been featured on a recording. He also takes inspiration from texts as diverse as the Bible, the Hindu Gayatri Mantra, the poetry of the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, African American abolitionist and suffragist poet Frances Harper (c.1850) and Lebanese American writer, poet and artist Kahlil Gibran. As in many of Sir Karl’s works, Carol Barratt contributes some impactful text (including for the movement ‘Paradise Lost?’), as well as various adaptations.

The combined orchestral and choral forces, with baritone Roderick Williams OBE, soprano Lucy Crowe and mezzo Kathryn Rudge as soloists, are conducted by Sir Karl Jenkins, in collaboration with Artistic Director of the World Choir for Peace, Nicol Matt.

Sir Karl Jenkins shares his thoughts on the album, stating, ‘In 1998, I was commissioned to write a piece, The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, that was to herald a new millennium with the hope of a lasting period of peace. The war in the Balkans was happening while I was composing, which is why I dedicated that work to the victims of Kosovo.

‘I began One World during the first U.K. COVID lockdown in 2020. Progress was slow and I had a nagging concern that issues raised in the work would be irrelevant by the time of the premiere and record release, in 2023. Twenty odd years since writing The Armed Man, and three thousand performances later, little has changed and if anything, the global situation has worsened; another war in Europe and a fractured world in so many ways.’