Jonathan Willcocks is the composer of an extensive list of works, which ranges from short SATB anthems to cantatas for children's choir, and includes a number of major choral works. He is the conductor and musical director of the Portsmouth Choral Union and Chichester Singers, and of the professional chamber orchestra Southern Pro Musica, and he is a regular guest conductor, these engagements taking him to the USA and Canada, and to Singapore, South Africa, Australia, and many European countries.  And, since 1989 he has been Director of the Junior Academy of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Jonathan Willcocks' music covers a broad range of choral, orchestral, and instrumental chamber music, much of it written to commissions from choirs,

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festivals, instrumental ensembles, and television and film companies. His music is primarily published by Oxford University Press and the Lorenz group of publishers (represented in the UK by William Elkin Music Services), while Novello has some of the earlier works. In recent years, Prime Music has added Willcocks' works into its catalogue.

Willcocks' choral music divides into three main categories – major choral works, works for children's choir, and shorter choral music.  Major choral works for SATB include Christ is Born, Come Rejoicing, Great is the Glory, On this day rejoice, Riddle of the World, Sing Praises, Voices of Time, and Worcester Mass. More recent additions are Magnificat, a joyful work for choir and brass group, commissioned and first performed by the Hickory Choral Society in North Carolina, and Lux Perpetua, a powerful, 30-minute work written for high schools in Chicago in 1999.  Lux Perpetua, with its theme of peace and unity, is particularly relevant in this third Millennium, and has been likened to Benjamin Britten's War Requiem.  November 2000 saw the première of In the beginning, a 30-minute work for soprano solo, SATB choir, and orchestra, and Gloria followed in February 2001, an SATB work with brass quintet and percussion or orchestra.  Slightly smaller in scale is a work for chamber choir and small orchestra, Ring ye the bels, written as a celebratory piece for the opening of Maidenhead's new arts centre. Most recent is From Darkness to Light, a setting for SATB choir, brass, timpani, percussion, and organ, which combines the Latin Requiem Mass with contemporary American poetry.

Willcocks has received regular commissions for music for children's choir over recent years, and these have resulted in The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Mayhem! The Misfortune of Miss Maisy Murgatroyd, Musical Pie, and the most recent, Snow White. These four works have now been recorded onto two CDs.  The Pied Piper of Hamelin, is a setting of Robert Browning's famous poetic tale, and Musical Pie is a mixed collection of movements with the theme of childhood. Mayhem! is scored for two-part upper-voice choir with mezzo-soprano soloist, and depicts the developing nightmare of a teacher who gradually loses control of her class of unruly children, and Snow White is a re-telling of the famous fairy tale by the brothers Grimm for mezzo soloist, upper-voice choir, and small ensemble.  All are now published by Prime Music, and join the earlier work, Images of Youth, recently published by Plymouth Music Company in the US.

The majority of the shorter choral pieces are sacred, with a handful of secular titles such as Musical Risotto and Three Sea Shanties. Many of the sacred pieces can be heard on the Priory CD, The Choral Music of Jonathan Willcocks (PRCD 668), and can be found in the Lorenz catalogue.  Recent additions to the list include Christmas Pudding, a light-hearted tour of more than 15 carols in four minutes, and also for Christmas, In Excelsis, a commission from Sargent Cancercare for Children, for SATB with piano or organ and optional brass. For other times in the Church's year, the three newest titles are Let your alleluias rise, a celebratory anthem for SATB choir with brass and organ written for Fort Wayne, Indiana, Most glorious Lord of Life, commissioned to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of the Diocese of Derby, and My Hope is in Thee, commissioned by Portsmouth Grammar School.

As a conductor, Jonathan Willcocks works regularly with his own choirs and chamber orchestra in the South of England, but also travels widely in his work as a guest conductor of both choirs and orchestras. He works extensively in the USA, most recently giving concert performances and taking choral workshops in New York, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Indiana, North Carolina, and Michigan.  He conducted the children's Honor Choir at the Canadian Suasé festival in 2001, and made a return trip to Canada in July 2003 for the Niagara Music Festival. Other recent engagements have taken him to France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Australia. 2001 saw his first invitation to South Africa from the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir where he conducted Magnificat and Ring ye the Bels.

Jonathan Willcocks' formative years were spent in Cambridge, where he was a chorister at King's College, and, whilst studying for his degree, he held a choral scholarship at Trinity College.  Such strong early links with the world of education have been continued into adulthood, with his work as Director of the Junior Academy at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

2003 saw celebrations for his 50^th birthday, including Magnificat at the Leith Hill Music Festival in Dorking in April, and in the same month Great is the Glory in Portsmouth.  A concert by the Redbridge and Reigate Choral Society featuring the music of both Jonathan Willcocks and his father launched the year's events, in December 2002, and Lux Perpetua was then given in Chichester in March.  Other recent highlights were the world premières of the fairytale cantata, Snow White, and of a short secular work for three-part girls' choir, Three Country Girls, premièred and recorded in Nova Scotia, Canada.

To vists Jonathan Willcock's website, click here

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