Lodestone of Love
The premiere of a new work written and conducted by Paul Foster

What happens when you realise that you have no choice but to reinvent yourself, to the point of leaving your old life behind and seeking new beginnings, and that you must begin a journey of transformation into the unknown?

Such brave choices are, of course, being replicated by groups and by individuals in the present day just as they have across the world throughout history.

The visceral themes of renunciation and renewal, fear and faith, hope and despair, hardship and good fortune that can accompany such a transformation are brought to life in a new work by Paul Foster set to premiere in November 2026 here in Plymouth.

Locally-born composer Paul Foster has created a colourful musical panorama that encompasses bustling docksides, scenes of farewell, love duets, seascapes, violent storms, a radiant sunset and sunrise, all bound together by the transformative power of love.

The work comprises dramatic multi-layered choruses, solos and duets, and vivid orchestration. The evocative text draws on moving writings of the seventeenth century puritans but their hopes, fears and sentiments for an ideal world transverse time, and resonate as much today as they did then.

This work commissioned by Plymouth Philharmonic Choir, was originally to celebrate Mayflower 400. Then COVID struck and performance was paused, until now. It is a work of eternal optimism and depicts the transformative power which love has to ensure that much ill fortune can ultimately be turned around.

Fauré Requiem

Soprano: Catherine Hamilton
Alto: Helen Haviland
Tenor: Matthew Minter
Baritone/Bass: Darren Jeffrey

Dr Paul Foster

Paul studied piano, voice, conducting and composition at the University of London (Master of Music) and vocal studies at the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama.  He has a PhD in Music Composition from the University of Manchester and has been a visiting professor at the University of St Mark & St John.

He worked in London for many years in a wide range of music, covering music theatre, orchestral, symphonic wind orchestra and opera repertoire, and on projects with the Royal Opera House and London Sinfonietta, ranging from accompanying West End stars in recital to playing piano on the South Bank for the Sir Peter Maxwell Davies birthday celebrations. By contrast, his first experience of a recording studio was with Manfred Mann’s Earthband.

Returning to his native South-West, he has conducted almost one hundred performances at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth and has been conductor for award-winning performances with New Devon Opera and Plymouth G&S Theatre Company, holding the title of conductor emeritus with the latter.  He regularly guests for orchestras and choirs across the region as a continuo player in oratorios.

On the educational side of his career, Paul has been Music Advisor for the largest of the London boroughs, an Ofsted inspector (shh!) and has trained around five thousand new primary and secondary teachers to teach music as part of their initial teacher training.

As well as working as a composer, conductor, pianist and university lecturer, he is an award-winning actor and published poet.  He won a national award for his portrayal of the title role in ‘Amadeus’ in Greenwich – a version of Mozart’s persona that he does not seek to emulate when conducting that composer’s works!

Performances of Paul’s compositions have included the South Bank and abroad, and his works have been selected for the annual shortlist of the Society for the Promotion of New Music.  One of his latest pieces, a large-scale oratorio called ‘The Lodestone of Love’, was commissioned by Plymouth Philharmonic Choir for the Mayflower 400 celebrations, delayed due to Covid restrictions, but which will be premiered in the Plymouth Methodist Central Hall in November 2026.