I founded the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music at St Pancras Church in 2002. I had long thought that there was a need for an event that celebrated the very best of contemporary church music, and would encourage the creation of more, especially at a time when there was such a fantastic array of music being composed in the UK. Fortunately, the newly-arrived vicar at St Pancras, Fr Paul Hawkins, and the church council were very supportive. Our first festival, consisting of four services, a couple of lunchtime recitals and an evening concert took place in 2002.

Enlisting support from well-regarded contemporary composers was important, and our two founding composer patrons were Michael Berkeley and Sebastian Forbes, both of whom have written works for us. They have since been joined as patrons by a host of the UK’s foremost composers. We’ve also gained the support of senior clergy, with the Bishops of London and Edmonton now amongst our patrons.

From the very earliest days of the festival we have been committed to commissioning new music which can be performed widely. Our first commission was a Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis by Antony Pitts, which we sang on the first LFCCM broadcast on Radio 3 in 2004 – a service which celebrated the 1700th anniversary of the Martyrdom of St Pancras. Other works in that service were Francis Pott’s The Souls of the Righteous and Tarik O’Regan’s Locus iste. It was a fairly hair-raising experience, with a scratch choir and one rehearsal for the service, and we didn’t finish the run-though until eight minutes before the service went live! However, BBC producer Stephen Shipley was very calm and, whilst the service was tense, things worked well, with our music-making receiving the usual accompaniment of ambulance and fire engine sirens courtesy of the Euston Road!

It was Michael Nicholas, who had run the Norwich Festival of Contemporary Church Music, who suggested approaching the major choral foundations in London, including Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s, Southwark and Westminster Cathedrals to see if they might take part in the festival. I was thrilled when all agreed, and from 2005 onwards we have enjoyed an array of world-class contributions to the festival from these institutions and many others including the Temple Church, the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity Laban and Royal Hospital Chelsea, to name but a few.

To date we have commissioned over 40 works, a good number of which are now published, and a growing number of which are being widely performed and recorded. Our commissions for 2013 have arrived over the last couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to giving them their first airing. They comprise a set of canticles by Philip Moore and Ronald Corp’s set of Preces and Responses, both of which will feature on our BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong broadcast on May 15. Toby Young has written a Compline anthem Preserve us, O Lord, waking, and Richard Pantcheff’s motet Ex ore innocentium and the Missa Brevis by Nikolas Labrinakos will feature at Sunday morning services at St Pancras. We have also commissioned two pieces for organ: Daniel Saleeb’s contribution to the Orgelbüchlein Project is being performed by William Whitehead at Lincoln’s Inn Chapel on May 13; and Ed Hughes’ Chaconne for Jonathan Harvey – which will round off our Evensong broadcast – is a fitting tribute to a former patron of the festival.

In 2011 we launched a Call for Scores, and this year had a fantastic response from composers both in the UK, and further afield. This year’s festival will feature nine pieces selected from the entrants, many of which will be world premieres.

The LFCCM 2013 is our biggest festival yet, with over 40 events, in over 20 venues across London. A great number of the events are free, thanks to the generous funding the festival receives from individuals supporting individual commissions, St Pancras Church, the RVW Trust and the PRS for Music Foundation. I’d encourage everyone to get along to one or more of the events to experience some of the very best in contemporary music for the church.

Full details on all of the festival events can be found at lfccm.com.