STROUD SACRED MUSIC FESTIVAL 2025
"Sacred Sound 360"
St Laurence's Church: Stroud Centre for Peace & the Arts
Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th July
"Sacred Sound 360"
St Laurence's Church: Stroud Centre for Peace & the Arts
Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th July
Stroud Sacred Music Festival hooks up with spatial audio specialists Loss Gain and d&b Soundscape for an immersive programme of transcendent musical performances to celebrate SSMF’s 10th anniversary with a festival of immersive, deep listening experiences connecting the earthly and divine
|
|
FREE social need tickets for refugees, asylum seekers and social prescribing
Available for all events @ £0.00!!
Scroll down for the full Festival programme
Available for all events @ £0.00!!
Scroll down for the full Festival programme
|
|
|
|
COMMUNITY SUPPER
Saturday 5.00-6.15pm |
|
|
|
FULL FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Saturday 5th July
Early Morning Raga
Stroud Sacred Music Festival opens with a deep dive into Indian devotional music. K. Sridhar, sarod maestro, will be playing early morning ragas accompanied by Sanjay Jhala on tabla. Sridhar always enjoys Q & A (question and answer) after playing, and the event will carry the audience into a weekend of contemplation, experiential sacred music and sound, singing and chanting from a range of traditions and approaches. Tickets
Stroud Sacred Music Festival opens with a deep dive into Indian devotional music. K. Sridhar, sarod maestro, will be playing early morning ragas accompanied by Sanjay Jhala on tabla. Sridhar always enjoys Q & A (question and answer) after playing, and the event will carry the audience into a weekend of contemplation, experiential sacred music and sound, singing and chanting from a range of traditions and approaches. Tickets
Contemplative Prayer, 9.30-10.15am
Contemplative Prayer takes place each Saturday throughout the year. This is an opportunity for people to join together to share the teaching and practices of the contemplative traditions, with readings and silence followed by conversation in response to what has been received.
Newcomers are welcome. Free event - donations welcome.
Contemplative Prayer takes place each Saturday throughout the year. This is an opportunity for people to join together to share the teaching and practices of the contemplative traditions, with readings and silence followed by conversation in response to what has been received.
Newcomers are welcome. Free event - donations welcome.
|
Hayden Thorpe, 4.00-5.00pm
Former WILD BEASTS frontman performs NESS, his album-length ode to Orford Ness and the restorative powers of nature, based on ROBERT MACFARLANE'S book of the same name. The former weapons site in Suffolk is now a nature reserve, but its "strange quality" lingers: "Bad things happened, but there was redemption and healing and it's since become a very precious habitat, so this was the story I felt compelled to tell". Tickets for all Saturday evening events
Community Vegan Supper, 5.00-6.15pm
Rustic, worldwide cuisine made with love you can actually taste! Samuel Angelo offers flavoursome, vegan and gluten free Potato, Cauliflower and Spinach Dhansak. Yellow split pea gently stewed with a soffritto of onion and plum tomato - spiced with a freshly ground mild Masala homeblend, finished with creamed coconut, garlic, lime juice and coriander leaf. Served with wholegrain Basmati rice. Bar, teas and cake also available.
£9.00 Buy
Rustic, worldwide cuisine made with love you can actually taste! Samuel Angelo offers flavoursome, vegan and gluten free Potato, Cauliflower and Spinach Dhansak. Yellow split pea gently stewed with a soffritto of onion and plum tomato - spiced with a freshly ground mild Masala homeblend, finished with creamed coconut, garlic, lime juice and coriander leaf. Served with wholegrain Basmati rice. Bar, teas and cake also available.
£9.00 Buy
|
Alice Boyd & Guests, 6.30-7.45pm
The singer-songwriter and sound artist's folk-inspired harmonies, ambient electronics and field recordings invite us to ponder the intersection of human life and the landscape we call home, whether urban or wild. Alice and her ensemble share her latest music, including contemplative songs and sounds inspired by her trip to the Cairngorms, retracing the steps of legendary nature writer NAN SHEPHERD. Tickets for all Saturday evening events
Plus audio installation The Sounds of Kings Cross.
Presented with kind permission of Kings Place, London
The singer-songwriter and sound artist's folk-inspired harmonies, ambient electronics and field recordings invite us to ponder the intersection of human life and the landscape we call home, whether urban or wild. Alice and her ensemble share her latest music, including contemplative songs and sounds inspired by her trip to the Cairngorms, retracing the steps of legendary nature writer NAN SHEPHERD. Tickets for all Saturday evening events
Plus audio installation The Sounds of Kings Cross.
Presented with kind permission of Kings Place, London
Arvo Part: The Beatitudes, 8.00-8.30pm
This set of teachings by Jesus (Matthew 5, 1-11) are, for the St Laurence community, the heartbeat of Christianity and the benchmarks for an embodied spirituality. Arvo Pärt’s mystical attention to this heartbeat is given a fresh interpretation specially for this festival by William J Stokes of Voka Gentle, who has re-imagined and extended the Estonian composer’s minimalist choral masterwork, for choir and electronics. Tickets for all Saturday evening events
This set of teachings by Jesus (Matthew 5, 1-11) are, for the St Laurence community, the heartbeat of Christianity and the benchmarks for an embodied spirituality. Arvo Pärt’s mystical attention to this heartbeat is given a fresh interpretation specially for this festival by William J Stokes of Voka Gentle, who has re-imagined and extended the Estonian composer’s minimalist choral masterwork, for choir and electronics. Tickets for all Saturday evening events
Anna Phoebe, 8.45pm-9.00pm
Live violin and electronics spatialisation from the composer and new Radio 4 host of Add To Playlist. Known for her visceral violin-led soundscapes, Anna creates music that connects deeply with the natural world, translating emotion into cinematic sonic experiences. This will be a semi-improvised performance drawing on material from her forthcoming solo album Divergence. Tickets for all Saturday evening events
Live violin and electronics spatialisation from the composer and new Radio 4 host of Add To Playlist. Known for her visceral violin-led soundscapes, Anna creates music that connects deeply with the natural world, translating emotion into cinematic sonic experiences. This will be a semi-improvised performance drawing on material from her forthcoming solo album Divergence. Tickets for all Saturday evening events
TRANS VOICES x ILĀ X CODA NICOLAEFF
9.15-9.45pm
ILA KAMALAGHARAN and CODA, the artists behind the UK’s first professional trans+ vocal collective bring a brand new immersive choral piece to Sacred Sound 360, blending meditative soundscape, choral tradition, emerging technology and bold vocal experimentation. TRANS VOICES is currently part of the Barbican’s ‘Feel the Sound’ exhibition with UN/BOUND, an immersive sound installation shaped by quantum technology and AI that asks what is sacrificed and what is reclaimed in the pursuit of liberation and self determination. Tickets for all Saturday evening events
9.15-9.45pm
ILA KAMALAGHARAN and CODA, the artists behind the UK’s first professional trans+ vocal collective bring a brand new immersive choral piece to Sacred Sound 360, blending meditative soundscape, choral tradition, emerging technology and bold vocal experimentation. TRANS VOICES is currently part of the Barbican’s ‘Feel the Sound’ exhibition with UN/BOUND, an immersive sound installation shaped by quantum technology and AI that asks what is sacrificed and what is reclaimed in the pursuit of liberation and self determination. Tickets for all Saturday evening events
Sunday 6th July
The 'Cowshed' Service, 9.30-10.30am
A contemplative Sunday morning service steeped in the Christian mystical tradition of simplicity, silence, scripture, music, prayer, contemplation and an inclusive Holy Communion. It originated in a re-purposed outbuilding – a cow shed - in the nearby village of Bisley, and brings together the riches of Eastern and Western wisdom traditions. People of all faiths and none are welcome.
Do stay afterwards for refreshments. Donations welcome.
A contemplative Sunday morning service steeped in the Christian mystical tradition of simplicity, silence, scripture, music, prayer, contemplation and an inclusive Holy Communion. It originated in a re-purposed outbuilding – a cow shed - in the nearby village of Bisley, and brings together the riches of Eastern and Western wisdom traditions. People of all faiths and none are welcome.
Do stay afterwards for refreshments. Donations welcome.
|
Joyful Noise: Sacred Singing for All Ages, 11.30am-12.30pm
Gifted musicians and experienced group leaders CEILIDH-JO ROWE and DAISY BURT create a place of fun, magic, interaction and imagination for children, families and anyone who wants to sing catchy, joyful songs, that are easily learnt by ear. Singing together builds community and nourishes the spirit, whatever age you are.
Children under 13 need to be accompanied by an adult. Tickets
Gifted musicians and experienced group leaders CEILIDH-JO ROWE and DAISY BURT create a place of fun, magic, interaction and imagination for children, families and anyone who wants to sing catchy, joyful songs, that are easily learnt by ear. Singing together builds community and nourishes the spirit, whatever age you are.
Children under 13 need to be accompanied by an adult. Tickets
Inclusive Chant Space, 1.00-3.15pm
A vocal warm-up by voice specialist Fergus Ryan will open our afternoon of chanting. We begin with Universal Kirtan with SION JONES & FRIENDS, plus Revd Simon Howell on djembe drum. We then move into Christian chants from the Gregorian tradition or Plainchant, the Taizé community, and spirituals, with Revd SIMON HOWELL and KATIE LLOYD-NUNN. This heart-opening space of devotional singing wraps up the 2025 Stroud Sacred Music Festival. Tickets
A vocal warm-up by voice specialist Fergus Ryan will open our afternoon of chanting. We begin with Universal Kirtan with SION JONES & FRIENDS, plus Revd Simon Howell on djembe drum. We then move into Christian chants from the Gregorian tradition or Plainchant, the Taizé community, and spirituals, with Revd SIMON HOWELL and KATIE LLOYD-NUNN. This heart-opening space of devotional singing wraps up the 2025 Stroud Sacred Music Festival. Tickets
|
|
|
With special thanks to
