On the concert platform, Powell has written chamber music, operatic, oratorio and orchestral writing. He composed the short opera An Englishman, an Irishman and a Frenchman, with Gavin Greenway and librettist Michael Petry, which was commissioned by Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundersrepublik Deutschland, Bonn and his principal large-scale concert work is A Prussian Requiem, composed to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. With a libretto by close collaborator Petry, the work focuses on the German General Helmuth von Moltke and the events immediately preceding the outbreak of war. A Prussian Requiem received its world première at London’s Royal Festival Hall in March 2016, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Philharmonia Chorus, conducted by José Serebrier.  

Powell’s choral music was recorded on Hubris: Choral Works by John Powell, released in 2018 on his own 5 Cat Studios label. The album brings together A Prussian Requiem, Requiem Addendum and The Prize Is Still Mine, and features the Philharmonia Orchestra and Voices alongside soloists and other vocal ensembles. Requiem Addendum, recorded with the Eric Whitacre Singers, extends Powell’s exploration of choral writing beyond the requiem itself.  

Powell studied violin and composition at Trinity College of Music, graduating in 1986​.At Trinity he studied alongside composers, performers and arrangers who would become important collaborators, including Gavin Greenaway and John Ashton Thomas.  

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