HIGH FLIGHT
2018

High Flight is a choral setting of the poem written by John Magee Jr., a young poet and trained fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Just months before his death in 1941, aged 19, Magee captured the exhilaration of flight, reflecting on its freedom, the vast beauty of the deep blue sky, and, in a moment of transcendence, the feeling of ‘touching the face of God.’ This light, expressive, and rhythmically dynamic work seeks to convey the joy and wonder of his experience, weaving textures and delicately shifting harmonies to illuminate the soaring spirit of the poem. Premiered on 30th June 2018 by the Chesterfield Philharmonic Choir, directed by Steven Roberts, High Flight has since been performed in Bridlington and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.