Paul Hillier stands among the foremost voices in the early music revival, active both on the concert platform as a singer and at the podium as a conductor. Over time his programming interests expanded to encompass contemporary scores, resulting in performances and recordings that stretch from twelfth-century sources to works composed in the present century. He established two ensembles of international stature and earned multiple recording prizes, among them a pair of Grammy Awards.
Born in Dorchester, England, on 9 February 1949, Hillier began his musical life as a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The post gave him broad exposure to choral literature, a rigorous musical and academic formation at the Cathedral School, enduring professional relationships, and considerable recognition. Upon completion of his schooling he pursued music studies at the Guildhall School in London. In 1973 he rejoined St. Paul’s Cathedral for a single season as vicar-choral while simultaneously holding membership in the Queen’s Chapel Royal at Windsor Castle. The following year he made his first solo recital appearance at the Purcell Room and, in the same season, co-established the Hilliard Ensemble, assuming its music directorship. The all-male quartet quickly rose to prominence for its Renaissance programs, touring extensively and producing numerous best-selling and prize-winning discs.
Between 1980 and 1981 Hillier served as visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, after which he began dividing his time more evenly with the United States. In 1984 he held the Copland Colloquium Fellowship at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Growing curiosity about new music prompted him to urge the Hilliard Ensemble toward contemporary repertory; the same impulses, together with a desire to incorporate female voices and adopt a more theatrical mode of presentation, led to his departure from the group.
Hillier relocated permanently to the United States in 1990 to join the faculty of the University of California, Davis. There he formed Theatre of Voices, a flexible ensemble of male and female singers devoted to both early and recent music and presented in vividly staged productions. The group records exclusively for Harmonia Mundi, releasing material that ranges from twelfth-century chant through the music of Arvo Pärt, including John Cage’s Litany for the Whale and selections of early American sacred song performed in the shaped-note tradition. From 1996 to 2003 he directed the Early Music Institute at Indiana University and conducted its Pro Arte Singers. Between 2001 and 2008 he served as artistic director and principal conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir; in 2003 he also became chief conductor of Copenhagen’s Ars Nova ensemble, and in 2008 he assumed the artistic directorship and chief conductorship of Ireland’s National Chamber Choir.
He continues to appear regularly as singer and conductor throughout North America, Europe, and Japan, while moderating his schedule to accommodate teaching, administrative duties, and scholarly work. His publications include 300 Years of English Partsongs, Romantic English Partsongs, The Catch Book, a monograph on Arvo Pärt, and an editorial role for a forthcoming collection of Steve Reich’s writings. Hillier received Grammy Awards in 2007 for Arvo Pärt: Da Pacem and in 2010 for David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion. His recordings have appeared on the Harmonia Mundi, ECM, EMI, Finlandia, Hyperion, and Dacapo labels.
