Countertenor: 2024 Wrapped — Reginald Mobley

By Liberty Collard

2024 was a busy year for the Countertenor team, with exciting research discoveries, musical performances and trips to the archive. The team travelled across the country, from Liverpool to London, Cambridge to Stratford Upon Avon, searching for, and sharing the life and compositions of Charles Ignatius Sancho. Here is a summary of just some of the highlights…

Sons of England

In Spring 2024, research lead and American countertenor Reginald Mobley curated the programme, *Sons of England* - a selection of Baroque music by English composers, including Charles Ignatius Sancho. Reginald worked with Roderick Wiliams, a British tenor and composer, to commission a piece set to the text of one of Sancho’s *Letters.* In the late eighteenth century, a small group of Black abolitionist campaigners created the *Sons of Africa*, one of the earliest Black political organisations in the country that fought against the injustices of slavery. The programme title, *Sons of England*, commemorates their legacy today.
Mobley reflected…
“I found comfort in how masterfully Sancho expressed his own abolitionist spirit in his correspondence…Music is self-aware. Through its art, it must not only entertain, but also be allowed to be political, and free to comment on social issues that affect us all. And that makes it evergreen and ever relevant.”
The programme was successfully executed in collaboration with the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM), a leading British period-instrument ensemble, in a tour of four performances across the country: Cambridge, Liverpool, London and Bristol.
*Photo of the front cover of the ‘Sons of England’ programme*

Beyond the Bassline…

In Summer 2024, Countertenor were involved in The British Library’s 2024 exhibition, Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music. The exhibit was the first to display the half a century of music of African and Caribbean people in Britain. Sancho was showcased as part of the exhibition, reintroducing the ‘man of letters’ as a musician to thousands of visitors from across the world.
Reginald presented Sancho’s music in a lunchtime concert at the library as part of the exhibition’s season of events. The concert was well-received by a diverse audience, including students and tourists.
*Reginald on stage performing at the British Library concert*

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Wrapping up the year, Autumn 2024 saw the Countertenor project develop through a series of successful workshops. These research and development sessions helped the team identify several promising research leads to investigate Sancho’s music further and explore his musical circles in Georgian London.
One such investigation led the team to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon to learn more about David Garrick’s Jubilee celebration of Shakespeare in September 1769. Exploring the original archival materials led to new and intriguing insights being uncovered into the numerous connections between Sancho, actor and playwright David Garrick, and composer Thomas Arne. These leads will be investigated further in 2025, so stay tuned!
*Photo of the team at the Shakespeare Archive…[left to right] Reginald Mobley, James Turnbull, Elizabeth Shuck, Ben Park*

Reflecting as we begin another year, 2024 certainly proved to be a jam-packed journey for the Countertenor team. With many questions awaiting to be answered, and discoveries to be made, we can’t wait to see what 2025 will bring!