The Jenkins Stabat Mater by the Symphony Choir of Cape Town is a Collaboration with Windworx & Stellenbosch University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and with the SACS High School Boys Choir and the Herschel Girls Choir. Every year, the Symphony Choir collaborates with selected Cape Town schools in order to expose scholars to large-scale classical works and ignite a passion for choral music, which will hopefully continue into their adult life.

Composed in 2007 for choir and orchestra, Stabat Mater, by Sir Karl Jenkins, is based on the 13th-century prayer. It is one of the most popular contemporary settings of the medieval Catholic poem, “Stabat Mater dolorosa” (‘The sorrowful Mother was standing’) and reflects on the suffering of Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the time of the Crucifixion. Like much of Jenkins’ earlier work, the work incorporates both traditional Western music (orchestra and choir) with ethnic instruments and vocals. This broadens the work from specifically Christian meditation to a more universal reflection of grief, motherhood, suffering and compassion.

The work includes twelve movements, six of which use texts other than the original poem. They include a choral arrangement of the Ave Verum” Jenkins originally wrote for Bryn Terfel, a Welsh Bass-Baritone opera and concert singer and “The Mother Did Weep,” which features a single line sung simultaneously in English, Latin, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. Audiences love this work due to its emotional immediacy. It offers rich colours, dramatic contrasts and a deep sense of spirituality without the complexity of some modern sacred music.

Stabat Mater received its world premiere in Liverpool Anglican Church on Saturday, 15 March 2008.