Women of the World (WOW) have announced a new choral commission by composer Errollyn Wallen CBE to mark 15 years of the global movement. The piece will receive its world premiere on International Women’s Day as part of WOW at 15 at the Royal Albert Hall.

The music and lyrics are inspired by the work of WOW and the piece will be for choir and organ. The choral commission will be performed by an intergenerational choir made up of 150 women, girls and non-binary people aged between eight and 80 years from Mulberry School for Girls, St Boniface School, and Lips, a London based trans-inclusive women’s choir.  

Wallen was the first living female composer and first Black woman to have a work featured in the BBC Proms and was the first woman to receive an Ivor Novello award for Classical Music.

Wallen says: ‘I am delighted to be part of WOW 15 and honoured to be contributing a new work that celebrates WOW’s commitment to gender equity across the world. I look forward to sharing a musical moment of powerful solidarity and energy with the audience in the astonishing Royal Albert Hall.’

The evening will also feature the world premiere of a newly commissioned fanfare for the Royal Albert Hall’s 153-year-old 9,999 pipe organ written by award-winning composer Isobel Waller-Bridge and performed by renowned organist, conductor, broadcaster and composer Anna Lapwood.