Alan Wilson (composer)

Alan J. Wilson (born 1947), is a British composer of church music.

He was born in 1947, in Nottingham, UK, and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music at the age of 17. He attended composition classes with Nadia Boulanger and studied on a scholarship at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam early keyboard music with Gustav Leonhardt. From 1974 to 1986 he was Director of Music at the Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury, for whose choir he originally wrote many of his choral works. In 1976, he became Director of Music at Queen Mary College London; and in 1986, he became organist at the church of St. Mary-le-Bow.

At St. Mary-le-Bow, he has been engaged in researching music by William Babell and John Stanley (composer), while his work at Queen Mary College has engaged him in new compositions, including:

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 of Westfield College) to music, including 'The Downs' (a cantata) and several poems and hymns.

He is one of few composers who has taken seriously the use of synthesizers in the classical 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 commissioned work for Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis. Inspired by Bells was recorded by Doremi in 1995.

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