Jonathan Willcocks

Jonathan Willcocks

Jonathan Willcocks was born in Worcester, England in 1953 and, after being a boy chorister at King's College Cambridge and an Open Music Scholar at Clifton College, took an Honours Degree in Music from Cambridge University where he held a choral scholarship at Trinity College.

An active conductor, Jonathan is musical director of two large adult choruses—Portsmouth Choral Union and the Chichester Singers—and of the professional chamber orchestra Southern Pro Musica. He works extensively as a guest conductor of both choral and orchestral music, a career that has taken him in recent years to France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Australia and Singapore, in addition to engagements throughout the length and breadth of the United States and United Kingdom.

A few of his well‑known choral works include Christ Is Born, Come Rejoicing, On This Day Rejoice, and Great is the Glory, and Worcester Mass, commissioned for the internationally famous Three Choirs Festival. In addition, he has written a large number of anthems, carols and other smaller works. Sing Praises, a vibrant work for mixed chorus, brass, percussion, and organ (with an optional orchestral version also available) was commissioned by the London Bach Choir and first heard in the Royal Albert Hall in December 1994, and Images of Youth, a substantial work for children's chorus and orchestra is widely performed in the United States, where he is regularly invited as a guest conductor and clinician, making his New York Carnegie Hall debut in 1990.

His orchestral works include the concert overture Australia and The Theatre Ghost, for narrator and symphony orchestra, with smaller instrumental forms represented by his Brass Quintet and Sweet Music's Power, for soprano, flute, cello and harp, which was commissioned for the 1994 Great Lake Festival in Wisconsin.

The music of Jonathan Willcocks is published principally by Roger Dean Publishing Company, a division of The Lorenz Corporation, and Oxford University Press.

You can visit his site at www.jonathanwillcocks.com.