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On the 11th of April 2025 Sony Music Entertainment released the single "Eventide" through streaming media. The 3:06 minute song is a soothing piano composition by Rachel Portman. This single follows an earlier single "Hannah's Song" featuring the Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst, released on the 28th of February 2025. At the moment a new album has not been announced, but it is possible these songs are part of an upcoming project. Hopefully more of this soon!
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On the 11th of July 2025 Rachel Portman is scheduled to perform live at the Minthis amphitheatre of Paphos in Cyprus, as part of the Minthis Music Festival. The concert features violinist Niklas Liepe and promises 80 minutes of breathtaking live performance of her most memorable compositions! Tickets are for sale from the Minthis Music Festival website.
Update July 15th 2025: an impression of the concert posted by Rachel Portman
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On the 22th of May 2025 the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Brighton Festival Chorus will perform the UK premiere of Rachel Portman's 'Tipping Points' concerto. The performance will be conducted by Ludovic Morlot, with Francesca Dego playing the violin at the Brighton Dome concert hall. Tickets are for sale at the Brighton Festival website.
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On the 22nd of March 2025 Joyce DiDonato, the famous American mezzo-soprano performed the world premiere of 'Another Eve' at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, a composition by Rachel Portman in collaboration with the American librettist Gene Scheer. This expanded work is their second collaboration since they first collaborated on 'The First Morning Of The World' in 2022.
The 25 minute 'song-cycle', an expanded version of 'The First Morning Of The World', is a commission of the Konzerthaus Dortmund and the music college Winterthur and consists of seven parts:
- The First Morning Of The World
- Another Eve
- Breathing
- Holding On
- Why A Garden
- Eden’s Seed
- Tip Of Your Tongue
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Digital Records Roma has published a video of an interview with Rachel Portman, filmed during the recording sessions of her score for "The Return". The 'behind the scenes' video shows images of the orchestra playing the score mixed with images from the film,, and also includes interviews with other people involved in the production, like the orchestrator, conductor and score & mix engineer.
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On the 28th of February 2025 Sony Music Entertainment released the single "Hannah's Song" through streaming media. The 3:19 minute song is a beautiful composition by Rachel Portman, featuring the Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst playing the reflective main theme. At the moment it is not clear if the song is an independent release, but it seems likely this single is an advance release for an upcoming project. Hopefully more of this soon!
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Rachel Portman is one of over 1000 musicians that have come together to release 'Is This What We Want?', an album protesting the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law.
In late 2024, the UK government proposed changing copyright law to allow artificial intelligence companies to build their products using other people’s copyrighted work - music, artworks, text, and more - without a licence.
The musicians on this album came together to protest this. The album consists of recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, representing the impact we expect the government’s proposals would have on musicians’ livelihoods.
All profits from the album are being donated to the charity Help Musicians.
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On the 23rd of February 2025 UK violinist Esther Abrami announced the release of her third album "Women", out on the 25th of April 2025 on Sony Classical. The album is a tribute to women composers across history and a range of genres, and showcases the exceptional talent of 14 remarkable composers, spanning newly composed works and rediscovered masterpieces. The album features Rachel Portman's composition 'Apple Tree' from her 2020 album "Ask the river", as well as new arrangements of compositions by composers such as Anne Dudley, Pauline Viardot, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Teresa Carreño and Ethel Smyth.
On her previous albums Esther Abrami also included compositions by Rachel Portman, playing an orchestral suite from Rachel Portman's opera "The Little Prince" on her 2023 album "Cinéma", as well as playing a suite of themes from "Chocolat"on her 2022 debut album. In the same year she also created a podcast series "Woman in classical" which includes an interview with Rachel Portman.
"Women" can be pre-ordered here.
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On the 24th of April 2025 at 8:00 PM Rachel Portman will be reflecting on her career in conversation with Gill Graham during "An evening with Rachel Portman". The evening is hosted at the Picture House Central cinema in Piccadilly, London, and next to the discussion will provide a unique opportunity to hear Rachel perform on the piano with acclaimed cellist Raphaela Gromes. Tickets are available online.
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On the 29th of January 2025 Kronos Records released a CD with Rachel Portman's score for "Despite The Falling Snow". The release of the film back in 2016 was also accompanied by the release of a soundtrack CD on Cube Records Ltd, but that issue went quickly out of print and now is difficult to find.
"Despite The Falling Snow" details the story of Lauren, a female spy played by Rebecca Ferguson who steals secrets from an idealistic politician and ends up falling in love with him. Rachel Portman blends seamlessly poignant, soft, nuances and themes with intense and jagged sounds for this dramatic, romantic, mystery film.
The CD release of Kronos Records is limited to 300 copies, so if you are looking for a copy be sure to order here. Previously Kronos Records also released limited score CD's for Rachel Portman's "Still Life" and "Private Peaceful", the last of which still has copies available at the time of writing.