Rhondda composer reunites with Welsh youth choir for debut album

Nation.Cymru staff

A composer from Tonyrefail has returned to the choir he sang with as a teenager for a debut album drawing on a decade of his choral music.

Nathan James Dearden’s i breathe, released by Signum Classics on Friday, November 6, features the National Youth Choir of Wales alongside the Choir of Royal Holloway and Kantos Chamber Choir.

The 15-track collection reflects the influence of Welsh hymns and choral traditions on his work, exploring themes including home, community, landscape and memory.

The National Youth Choir of Wales, conducted by Tim Rhys-Evans, performs two movements from Everything about us, a work setting words by Welsh poet Rufus Mufasa.

Written for the choir and first performed in the aftermath of the pandemic, the piece explores the expression of individual voices within a group.

Dearden said: “Pulling together this album made me notice the threads in my own language. Textures that envelop you like a hug. Simple moments of collective singing that pack a punch, the way those famed Welsh hymns I grew up with in the Valleys do. Ideas of ritual. Communities. What home means to us. The act of humans coming together. Our breath.”

Other works include suo, dedicated to his mother and inspired by the traditional Welsh lullaby Suo Gân.

The title track brings together poems by Ken Jones, Paul Chambers and Arwyn Evans, using whispered Welsh and other vocal sounds alongside sung passages.

The album also features Three Motets, commissioned by the Presteigne Festival for choir and cello, with former BBC Young Musician finalist Maxim Calver.

Morals + Interludes, a sequence of five short pieces, grew out of work with young singers during the pandemic, drawing on their recorded memories.

Recording sessions took place in London, Carmarthen and Manchester during 2025 and 2026. The three ensembles are conducted by Rupert Gough, Tim Rhys-Evans and Ellie Slorach, with Dearden also conducting suo.

National Eisteddfod

Dearden, who won the Composer’s Medal at the 2024 National Eisteddfod, is an associate professor in music composition at Royal Holloway, University of London.

He said: “i breathe is a decade of that living and learning. Recorded with the choirs who shaped me, and released with gratitude to every singer who taught me that music is never made alone.”

A Cardiff launch will take place on November 26, beginning with a reception at the Norwegian Church Arts Centre supported by Tŷ Cerdd.

The evening will include a surround-sound listening experience featuring the National Youth Choir of Wales recordings in the Wales Millennium Centre foyer, followed by a conversation between Dearden and BBC producer and podcaster Ellie Ajao. The event runs from 5pm to 7pm.

i breathe will be available on CD, streaming services and as a digital download.