The St Catharine's Girls' Choir, Cambridge & Edward Wickham (conductor) Following on from their acclaimed recording debut on ‘Nova! Nova!’ shared with the college choir of St Catharine’s College, The Saint Catharine’s Girls’ Choir, make their solo debut with a full album of recent works for upper voices, with their director Edward Wickham. Entitled Ave Maria after the two settings of this text by Rebecca Clarke and Cecilia McDowall recorded here, this disc consists almost entirely of world premiere recordings. Also featured is Kenneth Leighton’s Missa Cornelia and John Tavener’s challenging Missa Brevis alongside sacred works from Diana Burrell, Joanna Marsh and Judith Bingham. 'Highlights include Kenneth Leighton’s pungent Missa Cornelia (1980), but the most successful piece in this collection is Joanna Marsh’s 2010 St Paul’s Service, which imaginatively pulls the harmonic idioms of 16th-century choral music into attractive new polyphony, splendidly performed by these exceptionally well-trained singers.' The Observer