Remembering Sir David Willcocks (1919-2015)

From the shores of Normandy during the Second World War to the Royal College of Music all the way to the United States and Canada, David Willcocks’s career spanned decades and touched millions of lives. He received his music education at Westminster Abbey, Clifton College, and later studied organ at King’s College, Cambridge; but his University career was interrupted by WWII, and he worked as an intelligence officer in France and Germany. His bravery saw him awarded him a Military Cross when his unit was attacked. Willcocks returned to music after finishing his service: he directed the choir at King’s College, Cambridge and was choirmaster, conductor, and organist of many illustrious institutions, including the Cambridge Philharmonic Society, Salisbury Cathedral, Worcester Cathedral, the City of Birmingham Choir, the Bach Choir, and the Bradford Festival Choral Society.

Willcocks was director of the Royal College of Music for a decade, traveling with the choir across the globe and completing multiple recordings. His career was long and varied, and he guest-conducted choruses around the world, including the Mormon Tabernacle choir. In 1977, he was knighted in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Honours. Near the end of his life, he was conducting up to 100 concerts a year. Willcocks’s talent and artistry shone brightly, and he was known for methods of training choirs that created improvements in accuracy for pitch and diction. City Choir of Washington singers and audiences know Willcocks best as the arranger of the Christmas Carols we sing each holiday season—his descant arrangements in particular remain popular worldwide.

September 17 will mark the 5th anniversary of David Willcocks’s death, and he is remembered as one of the most influential British conductors of the 20th century for the impact he made on the world of choral and classical music.