Overview
- The first single, “Bracken Road,” was released Friday, July 10 and serves as the preview for Life Is a Dream, a 12-track orchestral album drawn from compositions Hopkins wrote across more than six decades.
- Decca Classics formally announced the deal and says the full album will be released on August 21, presenting Hopkins’s pieces as an intimate musical memoir tied to his Welsh upbringing and family memories.
- Recordings were made in April at London’s Alexandra Palace with conductor Gustavo Dudamel leading the Philharmonia Orchestra and featuring soloists Sergio Tiempo and Gregorio Nieto plus The Bach Choir and the Boy Choristers of Winchester Cathedral.
- Hopkins, who began piano lessons at age four and composed from adolescence, said music was his “first desire” and that many of the pieces have lived with him for decades before this public release.
- Decca says proceeds from CD and vinyl sales will be donated to the United Nations development fund for Venezuela, a move that links the album’s physical sales to humanitarian aid and could broaden its public impact.