Hailing from the island of Guernsey, Lydia Jane Pugh is an award-winning composer specialising in choral and chamber music, with much of her work being inspired by the islands’ history, culture, and beautiful landscapes. Her music’s universal appeal has led to performances around the world by several professional groups, including the Ebor Singers in the United Kingdom, and the Empire City Men’s Chorus in the United States. Her work has made the finals of several awards, including the National Centre for Early Music’s Young Composer Award (United Kingdom), the Songdoor International Songwriting Competition, and the Australian Boys Choir Choral Composition Competition. Most recently she was awarded the Nathan Davis Prize in composition at the Young New Yorker’s Chorus Young Composer Competition in 2018 for her piece Adiraï (Misplaced). She has also had the great joy of being selected to participate in several Composer Institutes, including the Lehigh Choral Composers Forum, the Choral Chameleon Summer Institute, and the Charlotte New Music Festival. Her chamber piece Voul-ous enne p’tite goute?, written for and recorded at the Charlotte New Music Festival was recently released by Ablaze Records on their compilation album, Millennial Masters; Volume 9.  

Lydia studied for her Bachelor’s (Honors) in Music at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. She subsequently completed her Master’s Degree in Composition at the Leeds College of Music. Alongside her career as a composer, her immense passion for the voice sees her also working as a professional singer, vocal coach and musical director. In 2016 she was appointed the conductor of the Guernsey Glee Singers, Guernsey’s longest standing community choir celebrating over 90 years of singing. In the same year she was awarded the John Owen-Jones Award, a scholarship from The Voice College enabling study for the Advanced Professional Diploma in Teaching Contemporary Singing, from which she graduated in 2017 with distinction. She was later awarded their prestigious award for excellence — The P. J. Proby Award — in 2017 for the high standards of her work and has since joined the team as a tutor and online course content facilitator.

Albums

Voices of Earth and Air Vol IV

Release Date: September 9, 2022
Catalog Number: NV6465
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
Navona Records presents VOICES OF EARTH AND AIR VOL IV, a choral celebration of the human commonality we find within music. Featuring the works of six seasoned composers, each piece tells a sentimental story unique to each composer, fitting together like puzzle pieces and demonstrating the connective qualities of the human voice. Brought to life by Prague’s Kühn Choir, these choral works are sure to entrance and entice listeners with flowing tonality and artful text settings that demonstrate the powerful storytelling capabilities that vocal music wields.

Division of Memory

Release Date: October 8, 2021
Catalog Number: NV6373
21st Century
Chamber
Cello
Piano
Navona Records presents DIVISION OF MEMORY, a comprehensive collection featuring a variety of sound production methods displayed on the cello by Thomas Mesa. The works of composers Lydia Jane Pugh, George Holloway, Ben Yee-Paulson, Jonathan Chenette, and Elizabeth Start are featured on this album, each with their own compositional personality and a repertoire dedicated to the multifaceted soundscape of the cello.