"This wonderfully varied disc is more than just a stylistic grab-bag, but has a real aesthetic identity and a winning self-assurance."
- Bernard Hughes, The Arts Desk
Tomorrow is today
April 2026 - SOMM Recordings
In spring 2026 Papagena released their much anticipated and acclaimed new release on the SOMM record label, featuring no fewer than six world premiere recordings and three works in their first commercial release. The album includes music by Janet Wheeler, Kate Bush, Don Macdonald and Shivani Rattan and is based around themes of divine and human beauty, love in all its guises and the passing of time.
With Papagena’s trademark of extraordinarily diverse programming, this new collection of music for women’s voices spans 900 years and draws music together from different parts of the world to include contemporary music from Canada and America, folk pieces from Eastern Europe and the British Isles, Yoruban prayer, Bollywood and the Italian renaissance.
MUSIC VIDEOS
"a group combining code-switching stylistic flexibility with impeccable technique and a fearlessly broad repertoire – drifting from Hildegard of Bingen into Kate Bush and folk arrangements from Nigeria to Ukraine."
- Gramophone
HUSH!
March 2020 - SOMM Recordings
Papagena's 2020 release Hush! was the second release by the “extraordinary voices” (BBC Radio 3) with SOMM following their internationally acclaimed, Amazon classical chart-topping debut, The Darkest Midnight.
Typically for Papagena, Hush! is a centuries-spanning, genre-defying, culturally diverse recital marrying sacred and secular, ancient and modern, classical, traditional and even stadium rock. The result is an often gorgeous, always intelligent exploration of “hush” as a harbinger of consolation, of tranquil release and of mild admonition to pause, listen, feel and relish the quietly exultant glories of being alert and alive to the fleeting moment.
Papagena’s beautifully blended, pristine vocal signature illuminates ecstatic heights, anguished depths and love in all its multi-hued splendour with a becoming thread of wit and humour.
First recordings include The Woman’s ‘If’, Jim Clements’ knowing setting of Caitlin Moran’s wickedly arch re-imagining of Rudyard Kipling’s If from a modern female perspective, Suzzie Vango’s arrangement of American rock icons Guns N’Roses’ anthemic Sweet Child O’Mine and Geoffrey Weaver’s exquisite re-working of Tchaikovsky’s touching depiction of the Christ-child, Legend (The Crown of Roses).
"It’s an exhilarating, unworked sound...and leaves you marvelling at the singers’ technical control and precise blend."
- Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone
"a group combining code-switching stylistic flexibility with impeccable technique and a fearlessly broad repertoire – drifting from Hildegard of Bingen into Kate Bush and folk arrangements from Nigeria to Ukraine."
- Gramophone
