John Rutter

Christmas carol services, once staid and stiff affairs, were changed forever by John Rutter. Born in London in 1945, he learned the intricacies of harmony and counterpoint at Highgate School (where his contemporaries included fellow composer John Tavener and the pianist Howard Shelley). His musical language, while firmly rooted in the English choral tradition, is also coloured by his love for late-19th-century French music, and underpinned by a profound generosity of spirit. During the 1960s and 1970s, he composed a series of beautifully crafted, instantly memorable, heartwarming yuletide pieces, the “Shepherd’s Pipe Carol” evergreen among them. Rutter’s tuneful carols reached a global audience thanks to the conductor David Willcocks, who included them in the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, and commissioned others, such as “Star Carol” and “Christmas Lullaby,” for London’s Bach Choir. His compositions, whether sacred or secular, resonated strongly with American choirs and their audiences, leading to commissions such as the joyous Gloria and the premiere of his Requiem in Dallas, Texas.