We’ll Meet Again (2025)
In celebration of both our 30th Anniversary in 2025, and in commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, our I Can Sing! students performed We’ll Meet Again, a compilation of several HMDT Music commissions about different aspects of the Second World War.
It includes ‘The Blitz’ scene from Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton’s opera The Hackney Chronicles, excerpts from our Home Front revue I’ll Be Seeing You (2005) by Matthew King and Alasdair Middleton, and music from Hear Our Voice by both Jonathan Dove and Matthew King, set to a libretto Tertia Sefton-Green, compiled from the writings of children of the Holocaust. It also includes two songs about Dunkirk Operation Dynamo by Matthew King and librettist Stephen Plaice which Creative Education Trust commissioned us to write for its 11 Academies and the first public performance of D Day which the Royal British Legion in 2019 commissioned us to create as part of their outreach work.
These works represent various aspects of the war and with it a range of emotional experiences embracing themes of fear, loss, friendship, family, patriotism, defiance, community spirit, humour and above all - as was overwhelmingly displayed by children writing about their own experiences - hope.
“My 5 year old son absolutely loved being part of a team. In the week before the show he was telling everyone about the upcoming performance. He really engaged with the subject and learned a lot about WW2, so it has deepened his interest in history” - I Can Sing! Parent
“I was very impressed with those young voices, and indeed the whole show: the costumes, the projections, all the preparation” - Jonathan Dove, Composer
