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Christopher Willcock
Composer Biography
Australian Jesuit priest Dr Christopher Willcock is one of the most prolific and frequently published Catholic composers of liturgical music. Willcock studied music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (graduated 1974), and was ordained for the Jesuit order in 1977. He then pursued doctoral studies in sacramental and liturgical theology at the Institut Catholique de Paris. Collaborating with author and cartoonist Michael Leunig, Christopher won the 2006 Classical Music Award for Choral or Vocal Work of the Year with Excerpts from his work tilted Southern Star (his cycle of nine Christmas carols composed in collaboration with Michael Leunig). The carols are composed for 4-part adult voices, or 3-part children's voices, and they are accompanied by harp - reminiscent of Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols. Other major works have been performed by the Tallis Scholars (May 2000) and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (December 1998). In 2006, he was the St Thomas More Chair of Jesuit Studies at the University of Western Australia. He also gave the annual Slattery Lecture for the School of Philosophy and Theology at The University of Notre Dame Australia. In 2004 he was appointed by Melbourne Chorale as their first composer-in-residence, and in that year they performed two new a cappella pieces, Etiquette with Angels (a setting of a poem by another Australian Jesuit, Andrew Bullen) and his setting of the Latin psalm 50, Miserere. The Melbourne Chorale also performed his John Shaw Neilson Triptych in late July 2004.
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