Local composer's work to be transformed into Ballet Short Film with Royal Ballet Dancer Bomin Kim

On 28 May 2026, local composer Matthew Wren, who was born and raised in Tring and attended John F Kennedy School in Hemel Hempstead, had one of his compositions performed at the Royal Opera House as part of the Royal Ballet’s Spring Draft Works 2026 programme. Pathei Mathos ("Learning Through Suffering") was performed by Royal Ballet dancers Bomin Kim and Scarlett Rose Harvey, and choreographed by Bomin Kim. The neo-classical ballet is now due to be transformed into a professionally filmed cinematic adaptation later this year at Aylesbury's Waterside Theatre.

The music was composed at a particularly traumatic time in Matthew’s life, following the death of his best friend, who was in his early thirties and had been struggling with a mental health condition. The music and ballet explore the themes of loss and the transformative effect that suffering can have upon our lives.

“Bomin and I have had many conversations about the story behind the music, and it has been a great privilege to work with someone who brings such emotional sensitivity and a profound gift for storytelling to her choreography. When we watched her perform the work at Aston Clinton School last week, none of us were fully prepared for just how powerful and moving it would be.

Through the planned cinematic adaptation, I hope we can share that same emotional connection with a wider audience and, perhaps dispel some of the misconceptions surrounding this beautiful art form. Too often, we are encouraged to think of certain forms of art, such as ballet, as belonging to particular audiences or communities. I believe the true spirit of art is to remind us that the emotions which define our lives are universal. Love, loss, fear and hope belong to us all, and, in recognising them in one another, we discover our shared humanity."

The film will move beyond a traditional recording of a stage performance to create something that feels more cinematic, using carefully crafted lighting, camera movement and intimate close-ups to draw the audience into the emotional journey of the work. Director of Photography Paul Williams, whose credits include numerous acclaimed wildlife documentaries alongside Sir David Attenborough, will lead the cinematography.

The film forms part of a wider creative journey for Matthew, who has composed and recorded two orchestral works and a piano composition over the past two years.

Alongside the film project, Matthew's first choral work, The Longest Day, will receive its premiere on 4 July at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Tring. Written to commemorate the 81st anniversary of D-Day, the work will be performed alongside Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb and Sir Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, which was voted No. 1 in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.

For Matthew, the performance represents a particularly meaningful homecoming, having first fallen in love with choral music as a child in the same Tring church, under the baton of the same conductor, Colin Stevens, who has served as Music Director of the Tring Choral Society for more than fifty years.

Further information about the concert can be found at tringchoral.org.uk.