and when the light returned, I, transfigured, awoke
and when the light returned, I, transfigured, awoke is a collaborative commission series curated and produced by mezzo soprano, Lea Shaw and composer, Fergus Hall.
The project sees contemporary Scottish based composer writing new works for Shaw, responding to themes of folklore, identity and ecology. The first iteration of the project saw four new works composed by Fergus Hall, Sonia Killmann, Rylan Gleave and Lea Shaw herself which were premiered at the University of Glasgow on the 29th of January 2026, by Lea Shaw and pianist, Javier Ucendo Malo.
Shaw writes;
"Through my life I've always looked to the turning of the seasons and the changing of things to ground me in the present. This reverence for impermanence and for nature has led me down paths of interests that seep through folk tradition and our intrinsic relationship with nature, the history of the imagination and the singer as a medium. I've always wanted to be someone who music was written for and this project and When the Light Returned, I Transfigured Awoke has given me that opportunity."
Photo by Becy Stabler
Alongside the commissioning and performance of new work, the project also aims to offer audiences an insight into the creative and collaborative process of contemporary music. Each piece is accompanied by an in-depth podcast style interview with the composer along with free access to the score.
Funding for this project was provided by Creative Scotland.
Lea Shaw - Dedication
"For me, the decay and growth are two sides of the same coin, one has to exist for the other to occur. When looking at the cyclical nature of this world and what we live in, seeing growth in death or the idea that fungi are the first heralds of a new ecosystem where they come from decaying plant and animal matter. I think that is a really cool thing. And it's something that I really anchor myself with, the idea that you can look at really dark things and all these things, but you can also then look at the life that comes after or the life that comes as a consequence of that. That's where that came from."
VIEW SCORE
If you learn or perform any of the works from the project or would like access to a score in an alternative key, please get in touch with us.
Rylan Gleave - The Brocken
"Occupying that more Scottish folklore space gave me a really different insight into how you might work with ancient themes, and I think for a while I got really stuck on how you can sort of retell and reimagine the new stories. I think that's still a theme across a lot of the work I do more generally, it's sort of that interpretation. I think that that works so well with that kind of witchy or folky vibe, because there's so much incredible, rich history to draw on - and I think the more you read of it, and the more you understand how people have experienced things, the more you can identify with it. It’s not just the case of "oh this person had a mad dream and you know…then did whatever", it’s more “oh I can see why someone would be in the emotional state of reaching that point".”
VIEW SCORE
If you learn or perform any of the works from the project or would like access to a score in an alternative key, please get in touch with us.
Sonia Killmann - Red Thread & Rowan
"I was always interested in how history has been told and what legends really have behind them, in terms of human beliefs and society. And for the longest time in our society, witches, - obviously it's mainly woman - have been scrutinised, they've been burnt and they've been demonised, and in folk stories, witches have been demonised. Women have been called witches, even though they're just existing, a wicked stepmother or something like that. So there was this element of what is a witch for me? What actually is a witch and what…what are they actually doing wrong? And in this story, I flipped it on its head.””
Fergus Hall - Ballad
"Around coastal folklore, you get a lot of witches shape-shifting into seabirds, which I thought was quite cool. And obviously you've got the whole thing of sailors seeing albatross as lost souls, but there are loads of stories of sailors getting attacked by some monster and managing to wound it in some way only to get back and someone, often a woman, has also then been wounded mysteriously. Or the seabirds following ships. Sometimes it's not malicious. Sometimes it's them helping. Sometimes it's saving. Other times it is them creating storms and things. So I thought let's just, instead of trying to find the perfect folktale to set, let's kind of mish-mash loads together."