Anne Dudley

One Touch of Nature

The title of this life-affirming six-movement work comes from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: 'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin'. Through a compilation of texts by writers such as Algernon Charles Swinburne, Bessie Rayner Parkes, Rabindranath Tagore, and John Burroughs, the piece explores our fractured relationship with the natural world and nature's powerful ability to renew itself. Dudley crafts a compelling dialogue between the characterful choral parts and the highly expressive string writing, creating a rich and powerful narrative around this important subject. Listeners can revel in a sumptuous soundworld while finding a reflective space to consider their own relationship with the natural world, before the soprano soloist draws the work to a close by inviting us to wonder 'How far are we from home?'

Anne Dudley is a multi-talented and critically acclaimed composer, arranger, producer, and performer. She has composed and produced soundtracks for dozens of award-winning films and television shows and was a founding member of the groundbreaking electronic group Art of Noise. In 1998 she won an Academy Award for Best Original Music for The Full Monty. Anne was the BBC Concert Orchestra's first Composer-in Association and in 2017 received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.