Pressing Go!
- Dominic McGonigal
- Oct 29, 2025
- 2 min read
It's Wednesday, the 25th of June 2025
I’m going to release an album! I met my friend James (who has produced numerous bill selling albums). He is going to produce and will look through my catalogue for the works that are most likely to get performances. He suggested we should record the symphony in Prague.
Thursday, the 25th of September 2025
Choosing Record Company
Rachel kindly arranged for me to talk to Convivium Records about the albums. Adrian Green (MD) produced Matthew Coleridge’s Requiem which did well. He had the sensible advice of releasing the albums sequentially to build interest.
Friday, the 24th of October 2025
Choosing Musicians
Spoke to Alastair who is very keen to record the choral works with the Festival Singers (London Festival of Contemporary Church Music). He performed Ubi Caritas beautifully earlier this year in the festival and the previous year he conducted Ave Verum, equally beautifully.
Monday, the 27th of October 2025
Album Covers
I was lucky to get to speak to Shakira today. She is deep in rehearsals for the premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s The Railway Children at Glyndebourne. By happy coincidence, we are seeing it on Saturday (much anticipation). I am thrilled that Shakira has agreed to design the album covers. We talked through the brief (show the beautiful music in my mind!) and the mood board of colours (creative), images (waves, arches), my notebooks and musical extracts, what shirts I might wear for the photoshoot. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with as designs.
Wednesday, the 29th of October 2025
Photoshoots
I’m in Sheffield for the rehearsal of Sunset At Sea and taking advantage of my wonderfully generous ‘niece’ Becky to do a photoshoot for the album covers – actually three photoshoots in Sheffield Cathedral, the Winter Gardens and the Botanical Gardens. Each has light and glass which Becky sees creating a thought bubble so you can see the music in my head. While posing for the shots, I do actually have Sunset At Sea going through my head, as played by the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra last night. I have seen the initial shots and Becky has absolutely captured that – you can see that there is something going on inside. She then took some shots of the pages in my notebooks, fragments of melody, harmony and rhythm that may or may not turn into a piece. Shakira will then weave her design magic to turn these images into album covers.
Comments