Jonathan Willcocks

Jonathan Peter Willcocks BEM (born 9 January 1953[1]) is an English composer and conductor.

Willcocks was born in Worcester, the son of conductor and composer Sir David Willcocks. He was a chorister at King's College, Cambridge, and an Open Music Scholar at Clifton College. He graduated with an Honours degree in Music from the University of Cambridge in 1974, where he held a choral scholarship at Trinity College. He served as director of music at The Portsmouth Grammar School (1975–78) and Bedales School, Petersfield (1978–89).[1]

He is conductor and musical director of Guildford Choral Society and Chichester Singers, and of the professional chamber orchestra Southern Pro Musica. From 1998 to 2008 he was the director of the Junior Academy, Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2016, Willcocks was appointed Festival Conductor of the Leith Hill Musical Festival, the 5th since Ralph Vaughan Williams and succeeding Brian Kay who held the post for 21 years.

Willcocks was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to music.[2]

  1. ^ a b Maggie Humphreys; Robert Evans (1997), Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland, A&C Black, p. 361, ISBN 0-7201-2330-5
  2. ^ "No. 64269". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2023. p. N37.