"Whitacre is that rare thing, a modern composer who is both popular and original"
- The Daily Telegraph, London

Eric has inspired millions as composer, conductor, innovator, broadcaster and charismatic public speaker. His compositions rank among the most popular and frequently performed of the early 21st century, their reach broadened since 2010 by the extraordinary success of his online Virtual Choir project. Light & Gold, his first album as composer and conductor, won the 2012 Grammy® Award for Best Choral Recording and instantly topped the US and UK classical album charts.

Born in Nevada, he discovered a passion for choral music while studying at UNLV and he began composing soon after. He went on to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York under John Corigliano. Many of his choral compositions, Cloudburst, Lux Aurumque and Sleep among them, have entered the standard choral repertoire and his orchestral music has been performed by some of the world’s most distinguished orchestras both sides of the Atlantic. Eric is currently Composer-in-Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, UK.

A distinguished speaker, Eric has been invited to address the UN Leaders Programme, give the closing plenary at Davos World Economic Forum and to speak for UNICEF and Google among others. He has appeared twice on the main stage at the global TED conference in Long Beach CA, earning standing ovations on both occasions. Recent Virtual Choir projects include ‘Glow’ written for the Winter Dreams holiday show at Disneyland© Adventure California and the Virtual Youth Choir, in association with UNICEF, which premiered at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Broadcast live to 119 countries worldwide, Eric made his iTunes Festival debut with his professional choir in 2014, inviting multi award-winning composer and conductor Hans Zimmer to join him on stage. The performance was consequently released as a live album. Eric returned to the Minnesota Orchestra for a second residency in 2015 culminating in three performances at Orchestra Hall.


Yeung-ping Chen is a Hong Kong-born composer who has received musical education from St. Bonaventure College and High School, Hong Kong Baptist University, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego). His studies have been guided by notable mentors such as Alfonso Wong, Christopher Coleman, Law Wing-fai, Clarence Mak, Katharina Rosenberger, Roger Reynolds, Philippe Manoury, Rand Steiger, and Lei Liang. 

The recipient of the Asian Cultural Council’s Altius Fellowship, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund, and CASH’s Music Scholarship, Chen was named a finalist for the Rivers Awards Competition in Shanghai and has received commissions from Steven Schick and La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, Bard Conservatory of Music, Macau Band Directors Association, the Hong Kong Wind Philharmonic, Musicus Society, L'Ensemble Télémaque, and many others. 

Chen was also a composer-fellow for the Ensemble 2010 Project at Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD), the International Ensemble Modern Academy in 2011, June in Buffalo 2012, Manhattan Hong Kong Music Festival 2012, the Northwestern University New Music Conference (NUNC! 2014), the NEC’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SCIPP 2014), the Asian Composers League (ACL Taipei) in 2018, the China-ASEAN Music Festival (Nanning) in 2019, Shanghai Contemporary Music Festival (originally Shanghai New Music Week) in 2008, 2019, and 2024, Beijing Modern Music Festival in 2025, and worked with Marino Formenti, Christopher Rountree, Steve Schick, Jeffrey Milarsky, Johnny M. Poon, Jin Yukuang, Raoul Lay, Dedric Wong, Matt Kline, Scott Paulson, Viola Yip, Sara Perez, Rachel Beetz, Ine Vanoeveren, Paul Hembree, Kyle Johnson, Michael Matsuno, Alice Teyssier, Jessica Azordi, UMS n’ JIP, James Cuddefold, Jan Söderblom, Yuki Numata, Wong Tak Chiu, Ruan Mingyuan, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Red Fish Blus Fish, Ding Yi Music Company, Collegium Musicum Hong Kong, the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Ensemble Modern (IEMA), Hong Kong Sinfonietta, JACK Quartet, Ulysses Quartet, Cong Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Novus-Classica Camerata, the Radnofsky Saxophone Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, Groove Wind Quintet, Rhythmaker, L'Ensemble Télémaque, and Tactus Ensemble. 

Chen is currently Associate Professor at the School of Music at the South China Normal University (SCNU) where he curated various academic exchange and research projects, including a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary exchange project called “Ink Art and New Music” supported by ACC, HKU MUSE, M+, and Bard’s US-China Music Institute. Chen also served Macao Polytechnic University (MPU) as Programme Coordinator and Guest Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Design in the summer of 2023. Chen is currently the Director of Council of the Hong Kong Composers' Guild (HKCG). 

Chen respectively launched a research project, "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Composers and Compositional Research Network" in 2022 and a multi-dimensional platform, “South China Contemporary Creative” and its music institute (SCCCMI) in 2025. These two initiatives aim to curate professional connections among composers and researchers in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, as well as to explore, investigate, cultivate, and promote the original sounds of the region. 

Chen’s compositions are published and distributed by Universal Edition AG.

Vox Humana is a chamber choir at the University of Oslo, and the singers are students or former students. Our profile is choral art in its widest sense, and we are continuously working towards higher musical standards. At the same time, we want the choir to be a great social experience for all team members. As a result, we like to explore very different musical genres. Conductor Dag Jansson has been artistic director since 2006.

The choir released its first CD in 2011, «Yuletide». The next CD was released in the autumn of 2012, «Ømhetens tre» (Tree of Tenderness) – an oratorium for choir and four cellos by Norwegian composer Magnar Åm.

Ola Gjeilo was born in Norway in 1978 and moved to the United States in 2001 to begin his composition studies at the Juilliard School in New York City.

Ola is an exclusive Decca Classics artist, and his Decca choral albums include “Ola Gjeilo”, “Winter Songs” & “Dreamweaver”, featuring Tenebrae, Voces8 and the Choir of Royal Holloway, as well as the solo piano albums “Night” & “Dawn”. His global streams have now surpassed 250 million.

For more information, please visit olagjeilo.com, or find Ola on his social media profiles.

The Chapel Choir of Queens' College, Cambridge

Diocesan Girls&#x27; School Choir is following

Diocesan Girls' School Choir is following