Bob Chilcott has enjoyed a lifelong association with choral music as an internationally renowned composer, conductor and singer with a multitude of works commissioned amongst others, by the BBC Proms and by Westminster Abbey to celebrate the Queen’s 60^th Anniversary of her Coronation.

In the first few weeks of term, Bob has been teaching the Jazz module to the A Level Music students and getting to know the Lower School girls in their music lessons. Bob said, ‘I have always enjoyed teaching young people and my aim is always to go above and beyond the curriculum and engage all their senses in the energy and emotion of music. I haven’t yet met a young person who can’t be engaged by music and there is just so much to learn in terms of language, history, religious thought, philosophy and even mathematics through the study of Music. I am also relishing the prospect of working with the incredible Downe House choirs and hope to inspire them through sharing my experience of working with choirs in more than 30 countries around the world. I can’t wait to see what we might achieve together.’

Last year, Polyphonix who won the Barnardo’s Senior Choir of the Year competition two years running chose to sing one of Bob’s works, the rousing anthem, ‘I Lift My Eyes’ when they performed in the Barnardo’s Young Supporters Concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Director of Music, Dr Charlotte Exon said,

To say we are excited about this appointment would be a huge understatement. Bob Chilcott is one of the most highly acclaimed and widely performed composers and arrangers of choral music in the world and we feel incredibly privileged that Bob will be bringing his inimitable energy, expertise and commitment to the musical life at Downe House and our wider musical community. Everyone involved in Music at Downe House is very much looking forward to working with him on a whole range of creative musical projects over the next few months.