"The Darkling Thrush" is a new composition by Rachel Portman, commissioned by King’s College in Cambridge. The composition is a 5-minute carol and its premiere performance will take place on Christmas Eve 2025 as part of the world-famous 'A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols' at the chapel of King's College. The event will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service on the 24th of December at 15:00 GMT. In the United States the service is distributed by American Public Media and is broadcast by over 400 radio stations, including Minnesota Public Radio and WQXR in New York.
'A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols' is a yearly service at the chapel of King's College in Cambridge that for many marks the beginning of Christmas. It was first held at on Christmas Eve 1918, first broadcast in 1928 and is now broadcast to millions of people worldwide. Since 1983 a new carol has been commissioned for the service every year, with this year's contribution by Rachel Portman.
The composition "The Darkling Thrush" is based on a poem by Thomas Hardy which was written around 1900. As Rachel Portman explained: “I chose Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush to set as a carol because it’s about faith in renewal. It was first suggested to me by my daughter who’d studied Hardy’s poems. I needed to find a text to sit within the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s and initially I was unsure it would be appropriate, however when the same poem was suggested by Laura Davies from the English Faculty at King’s, I looked again and discovered much in the words to set. I was particularly drawn to its deep rural setting, beginning as it does in the cold winter landscape, and the uplifting song of the little bird that bursts out upon the stillness bringing hope. The thrush’s song in the poem is given to a solo chorister, and the choir responds in growing warmth and melody. The poignancy of a frail thrush’s song as the bringer of hope into the world is, I feel, a good message for our time."
Rachel Portman is scheduled for a performance at the London Soundtrack Festival on Sunday April 12th 2026 18:30 CET at the Cadogan Hall. At the event titled 'Beyond The Screen' she will reflect on her career so far with Gill Graham, her long-time friend and publisher, and together with Niklas Liepe on violin and Nils Liepe on piano perform suites and themes from her much-loved catalogue of film scores, including The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, Never Let Me Go, Emma and more.
Tickets are available here: Cadogan Hall
On Tuesday December 16th 2025 Rachel Portman will join Antonia Quirke on BBC 3 radio show 'The Essay', broadcast at 21:45 GMT. Antonia Quirke speaks to composers who've scored original music for Austen adaptations about their musical choices and also about the music Austen enjoyed. Rachel Portman is invited to speak about her award-winning score for the 1996 film 'Emma'.
On the 7th of November 2025 Sony Classical released the single "Epilogue" through streaming media. The 4 minute track, a reflective composition for piano and violin played by Rachel Portman and Niklas Liepe, is the closing part of the "Tipping Points" violin concerto released in 2024. On release of the single Rachel Portman commented "Excited to share my new single Epilogue, a call to arms for our forests, with sublime violin playing by Niklas Liepe".
The new single is the 6th in a series of singles published in 2025, all songs are planned for release on an upcoming album in 2026, in collaboration with instrumentalists Niklas Liepe and Martin Fröst.