Composers
James Whitbourn
© Simone Canetty-Clarke
Born: 1963
James Whitbourn is a versatile composer of film, television and concert works. He studied music at Oxford University and began his career as a programme maker for the BBC, winning many awards, including a Royal Television Society Craft Award and a Sony Gold.
His range of style moves from the lush symphonic scoring heard in BBC landmark series such as Son of God to the sonorities of his choral album, which combine choir with saxophone and world instruments. He memorably composed the BBC’s title music for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and was commissioned with Poet Laureate Andrew Motion to write a new work for the broadcast of a Westminster Abbey service for the victims of 9/11 - subsequently performed in New York on the first anniversary of the attacks. He also composed the title music for the BBC Events coverage of the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day as well as many other programmes and series.
Other recent projects include a collaboration with the former Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu for Westminster Abbey, London, a Christmas mass commissioned for Rochester Cathedral and a festal setting of the evening canticles written for the Choir of King's College Cambridge, premiered under Stephen Cleobury. Annelies, a large-scale oratorio for choirs and orchestra written from the diaries of Anne Frank, was premiered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to great critical acclaim under the baton of Leonard Slatkin at Cadogan Hall, London in April 2005, with excerpts from the work also forming part of the National Holocaust Memorial concert attended by the Queen.
His orchestral commissions include the award-winning work Pika, based on the bombing of Hiroshima, one of three large-scale compositions written with the poet Michael Symmons Roberts and performed by the BBC Philharmonic, who have also recorded many of his television scores. His collaborations with the poet have also resulted in a set of songs written for the mezzo soprano Katherine Jenkins.
Many of his choral works have been recorded by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, with saxophonist John Harle and tenor Robert Tear under Timothy Brown, on an album devoted to his music described as ‘accessible, melodic and very beautiful’. His Son of God Mass has been performed all over the world, from the East Coast of America to Texas, to New Zealand, Iceland, Japan and many European countries.
Whitbourn also enjoys a profile as a conductor and producer. As well conducting the BBC Philharmonic and other orchestras in recordings of his scores, he directs the London-based vocal ensemble The Choir, whose acclaimed DVD recording of John Tavener’s choral music received a Gramophone nomination. The Choir, under James Whitbourn, has also recorded for many television appearances.
External Websites
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