David Willcocks

Sir David Willcocks CBE MC
David Willcocks in Belfast, September 2006 with "Melisma"
Born	David Valentine Willcocks (1919-12-30)30 December 1919 Newquay, Cornwall, England
Died	17 September 2015(2015-09-17) (aged 95) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
Occupation	Choral conductor Organist Composer College director
Organization	Choir of King's College, Cambridge The Bach Choir City of Bath Bach Choir Royal College of Music

Sir David Valentine Willcocks CBE MC (30 December 1919 – 17 September 2015) was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which he directed from 1957 to 1974, making frequent broadcasts and recordings. Several of the descants and carol arrangements he wrote for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols were published in the series of books Carols for Choirs which he edited along with Reginald Jacques and John Rutter. He was also director of the Royal College of Music in London.

During the Second World War (1939–1945) he served as an officer in the British Army, and was decorated with the Military Cross for his actions on Hill 112 during the Battle of Normandy in July 1944. His elder son, Jonathan Willcocks, is also a composer.

Born in Newquay in Cornwall, Willcocks began his musical training as a chorister at Westminster Abbey from 1929 to 1934. From 1934 to 1938, he was a music scholar at Clifton College, Bristol, before his appointment as organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge. There, in 1939, he met David Briggs, a choral scholar (bass). Willcocks and Briggs would later be colleagues at King's, from 1959 to 1974, as Organist and Master of the Choristers, respectively.