Professional career

He was born in 1947, in Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

, UK, and won a scholarship

Scholarship

A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...

 to the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

 at the age of 17. He attended composition classes with Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...

 and studied on a scholarship at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam

Conservatorium van Amsterdam

The Conservatorium van Amsterdam is a Dutch academy of music located in Amsterdam. This school is the music division of the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, the city's vocational university of arts...

 early keyboard music with Gustav Leonhardt

Gustav Leonhardt

Gustav Leonhardt is a highly renowned Dutch keyboard player, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. Leonhardt has been a leading figure in the movement to perform music on period instruments...

. From 1974 to 1986 he was Director of Music at the Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury

Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury

The Church of Christ the King is a church belonging to the Catholic Apostolic Church which is situated in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London, beside Dr Williams's Library and near University College London. The church is currently used by the Anglican organisation Forward in Faith...

, for whose choir he originally wrote many of his choral works. In 1976, he became Director of Music at Queen Mary College London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

; and in 1986, he became organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

 at the church of St. Mary-le-Bow.

At St. Mary-le-Bow, he has been engaged in researching music by William Babell

William Babell

William Babell was an English musician, composer and prolific arranger of vocal music for harpsichord.-Life:...

 and John Stanley (composer)

John Stanley (composer)

Charles John Stanley was an English composer and organist.-Biography:Stanley, who was blind from an early age, studied music with Maurice Greene and held a number of organist appointments in London, such as St Andrew's, Holborn from 1726...

, while his work at Queen Mary College has engaged him in new compositions, including:

• a commissioned rock opera
  Rock opera
  A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
  
   ('The Palace of Delights') in 1984
• an inter-faith cantata
  Cantata
  A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
  
   ('The Harmony of the Spheres') in 2001

He has also conducted research to restore and edit originally produced songs from the college archives,
including the 'Westfield Songbook' (1880 to c.1930).
He has set many of the writings of Constance Louisa Maynard (the first Principal

Principal (academia)

The Principal is the chief executive and the chief academic officer of a university or college in certain parts of the Commonwealth.-Canada:...

 of Westfield College

Westfield College

Westfield College was a small college situated in Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, London, and was a constituent college of the University of London from 1882 to 1989. The college originally admitted only women as students and became coeducational in 1964. In 1989, Westfield College merged with Queen...

)
to music, including 'The Downs' (a cantata) and several poems and hymn

Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

s.

He is one of few composers who has taken seriously the use of synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

s in the classical

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 medium.
Examples include the 'Norwich Mass' and 'Norwich Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis', written for the Norwich Festival of Contemporary Church Music. They were published by Weinberger along with a commission

Commission (art)

In art, a commission is the hiring and payment for the creation of a piece, often on behalf of another.In classical music, ensembles often commission pieces from composers, where the ensemble secures the composer's payment from private or public organizations or donors.- Commissions for public art...

ed work for Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis

Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis

Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis. Christ Church Cathedral is the oldest religious building in continuous use in Indianapolis.- History :...

. Inspired by Bells was recorded by Doremi in 1995.

Wilson has also been involved in broadcasting, mainly the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 Daily Service, where he has directed and also composed and arranged many compositions.

Wilson's Mass of Light was performed in 2010 at St George's Cathedral, Cape Town.

He has received frequent invitations from the heads of diocese

Diocese

A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

s in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 to run workshops, (for example, at the Wolfsburg Catholic Conference Centre in the diocese of Essen

Essen

- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

), mainly using his own, often new works.
His Magnificat, from 'Christus Rex', has become a major performed work in Germany. This, and many of the works listed in the references (below), appear in 'Freiburger Chorbuch'.

Performing artist

As well as being a recital organist

Organ recital

An organ recital is a concert at which music specially written for the organ is played.The music played at such recitals was typically written for pipe organ, which includes church organs, and symphonic organs...

, he has worked in mainstream ensembles

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 as a harpsichordist

Harpsichordist

A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord.Many baroque composers played the harpsichord, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau...

.
He was in the Consort of Musicke for many years, performing with Emma Kirkby

Emma Kirkby

Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE is an English soprano singer and one of the world's most renowned early music specialists. She attended Sherborne School For Girls in Dorset and was a classics student at Somerville College, Oxford, and an English teacher before developing a career as a soloist...

 and Anthony Rooley

Anthony Rooley

Anthony Rooley is a British lutenist. He founded in 1969 and directs the early music ensemble the Consort of Musicke, which continues to be one of the chief vehicles for his inspiration, among many other activities and interests...

.

Awards

He received an honorary Associate award from the Royal School of Church Music

Royal School of Church Music

The largest church music organisation in Britain, the Royal School of Church Music was founded in 1927 by Sir Sydney Nicholson and has 11,000 members worldwide; it was originally named the School of English Church Music. It seeks to enable church music in the present and invest in its future,...

 in Durham Cathedral

Durham Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...

in May 2010, for his work for the RSCM, and his work as a church composer.

Other works

• Christ is now risen again
• Mass of Light
• Mass of All Saints
• Mass of Regeneration
• Mass of the Holy Trinity
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis
• Seasonal Carols Old and New (4 volumes)

See, also, the list of 'References to other works', below.

External links

• Alan J. Wilson bach-cantatas.com
• Staff summary page at Queen Mary College