James Whitbourn
British composer, conductor, broadcaster and teacher James Whitbourn was born in Tunbridge Wells on 17 August 1963. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford and began making programmes for the BBC.
His large choral/orchestral works include Son of God Mass, Annelies and Luminosity. His orchestral works also include Pika, based on the Hiroshima bombing.
His work as a conductor included relationships with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the London-based vocal ensemble The Choir.
He had teaching and lecturing positions in Oxford, Cambridge, Royal Holloway (London University) and in the USA at Princeton and Northern Illinois University.
James Whitbourn died in Kent from cancer on 12 March 2024, aged sixty.