On 10 March this year at London’s Royal Albert Hall, composer Karl Jenkins stepped up to conduct his The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. It was a significant moment. The concert marked the 3000th performance of the work – a remarkable run for a piece of music composed only 25 years ago.

It is about to receive another airing in Sydney, as the centrepiece of the annual ChorusOZ concert presented by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs on 9 June in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Sir Karl Jenkins. Photo © Rhys Frampton

Speaking from his Cardiff home, Jenkins, who turned 80 this year, says he’s “enormously gratified” to have a work that has achieved a level of popularity few other contemporary composers have experienced.

His pride in the work is tempered by some mixed feelings, however.

“The original brief for the piece was to write something that was hopeful for peace,” he says. “That was back in 1998 and look where we are now. Nothing has changed. Peace is as far away as it ever was.”

Commissioned by the UK’s Royal Armouries at the turn of the millennium and envisioned as a work...