Bob Chilcott

British composer Bob Chilcott earned widespread recognition both domestically and internationally through choral pieces that span youthful ensembles and more ambitious adult works. His path to writing music began unusually late, following an extended period spent as a performer.

Born Robert Chilcott on April 9, 1955, he first entered the musical world as a boy chorister with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. He later returned to the same institution as a university student, during which time he also directed a collegiate choral society. After completing his studies he worked as a professional singer before becoming a tenor with the King's Singers in 1985, a post he held until 1997. Only then did he turn his attention exclusively to composition. Among his earliest widely performed pieces was Can You Hear Me?, a composition centered on a deaf protagonist that incorporates sign-language elements. He has led performances of the work in at least eight countries, among them a 2001 presentation in Vancouver, Canada, that assembled two thousand singers.

His ongoing partnership with the New Orleans Children's Chorus yielded A Little Jazz Mass and additional scores. In the same city, the five-movement choral cycle This Day received its premiere in 2007 at St. Louis Cathedral, performed by a national choir. Within Britain he has directed both the Royal College of Music Chorus and the BBC Singers, where he serves as principal guest conductor, and he holds the presidency of the Southend Boys Choir, occasionally leading that ensemble as well.

During the 2010s Chilcott concentrated on larger-scale compositions, beginning with the Requiem of 2010, which was first heard in his adult hometown of Oxford. The St. John Passion followed in 2013, while Ophelia, Caliban, and Miranda was presented at the picfest festival in Eugene, Oregon, with Chilcott conducting both the festival choir and the Yellowjackets jazz ensemble. Numerous British cathedral choirs have recorded his shorter choral works, and a selection of his jazz-inflected pieces appeared together on the 2017 Naxos album All Good Things.