St John's C of E Primary School
"Use your God-given gifts to serve others." 1 Peter 4: 10
Philip Herbert 16.10.23
Philip Herbert
Elegy: In memoriam - Stephen Lawrence
Philip Herbert was born 1960 in London and is an award-winning British Composer. He has written choral music, chamber music, music for film, dance and for the concert hall.
He has a keen interest in the historical contributions which Black Composers have contributed to classical music and researches and talks about this on tv and radio.
Elegy - In Memoriam Stephen Lawrence was composed by Philip after watching the news coverage of the death of Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager murdered in 1993 by a gang of young white men. He gave a tribute to him by composing an elegy. An elegy is a poem that is written to remember someone who has died; something to help people reflect on their life. It is written for 18 string players—each representing one year of Lawrence’s life
Philip says he hopes the music will help us “press together across our communities to help realise [Stephen’s] dreams.”