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Programme Note

Ikon of St Hilda is written for female voices or trebles and altos. The text by Mother Thekla, abbess of the orthodox Monastery of the Assumption, Normanby, near Whitby, is framed by an Alliluatic Antiphon. It is a tribute to St Hilda, seventh century abbess and scholar, and leader of a double monastery of both monks and nuns. She knew and encouraged the writer Caedman, and she presided over the Synod of Whitby, at which the British Church agreed how the date of Easter should be calculated.

John Tavener