‘Like to a flower’ is the second album dedicated to the music of Annabel Rooney, following the success of ‘As a seed bursts forth’, released in 2019.

These beautiful and approachable settings of traditional texts bring a fresh and original voice to the growing repertoire of sacred choral music by female composers. The disc opens with a ‘mini’ Evensong: Introit; Preces; Psalm; Magnificat & Nunc dimittis; Responses and Anthem, together with a Mass, anthems, and motets for all the seasons of the church’s year.

Annabel Rooney read music at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and continued her studies in Cambridge with postgraduate research on eighteenthcentury opera. Rooney turned to composition comparatively late, when her youngest child was starting school, mostly writing choral music.

Her music has been performed by many choirs in the UK and overseas, including Exeter and Ely Cathedrals, Bath Abbey, York Minster, the Chapel Royal, and King’s Voices and broadcast on Choral Evensong on Radio 3.

Her music is published by Selah, and Oxford University Press, notably in the ‘Breath of Song’ anthology of music by women composers.

Christ’s College, Cambridge and has had a Chapel Choir since its foundation in 1505. Now conducted by Professor David Rowland, the Choir sings a selection of music from the English and European choral traditions from the 16th to the 21st century.

Choral Evensong is sung twice weekly during term time. Today, as one of Cambridge’s finest mixed-voice ensembles, the group also pursues an exciting range of activities outside College, performing concerts around the UK, making recordings, and undertaking major international tours each summer to North America, Australasia, and other parts of the globe.

‘The performances are excellent, with well-balanced and nuanced choral sound, solid solo singing, and stirring organ work. I want to hear more of Annabel Rooney’s compositions.’ – American Record Guide, September 2019 (REGCD525)