Eric Whitacre - Biography

Biography

Born in Reno, Whitacre studied piano intermittently as a child, later joining a junior high marching band under band leader Jim Burnett and later playing synthesizer in a techno-pop band, dreaming of being a rock star. Whitacre began his full musical training while an undergraduate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, taking a BA in musical education, though he was unable to read music at the time. Whitacre states that the first work that he sang, Mozart's Requiem, changed his life. He studied composition with avant garde Ukrainian composer Virko Baley and choral conducting with David Weiller, completing his BA in Music in 1995. Whitacre credits Weiller with the inspiration that put the young composer on the musical path.At 21 he wrote his setting of Go, Lovely Rose for his college choir and presented the composition as a gift to David Weiller. Whitacre went on to earn his Master's degree in composition at the Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano and David Diamond. At the age of 23 he completed his first piece for Wind Orchestra, Ghost Train, which has now been recorded over 40 times. He acknowledges the great support of his mentor Tom Leslie in the development of composition for wind and in the writing of Ghost Train particularly.While at Juilliard he met his future wife Hila Plitmann and two of his closest friends Steven Bryant and Jonathan Newman. He lived in the state of Nevada until he was 25. He graduated in 1997 and moved to Los Angeles and following the success of Ghost Train, he decided to become a full time professional composer.

Whitacre's first album as both composer and conductor on Decca/Universal, Light & Gold, won a Grammy in 2012, and became the no. 1 Classical Album in the US and UK charts within a week of a release. Eric's second album, Water Night, was released on Decca in April 2012 and featured performances from his professional choir Eric Whitacre Singers, the London Symphony Orchestra, Julian Lloyd Webber and Hila Plitmann.

Whitacre has written for the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Chanticleer, Julian Lloyd Webber, Philharmonia Orchestra, Rundfunkchor Berlin and The King's Singers, among others. His musical, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, won both the ASCAP Harold Arlen award and the Richard Rodgers Award, and earned 10 nominations at the Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. Whitacre also worked with film composer, Hans Zimmer, co-writing the Mermaid Theme for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In 2011, Eric conducted the winning entries of the Abbey Road 80th Anniversary Anthem Competition, recording the London Symphony Orchestra and his professional choir, the Eric Whitacre Singers, in Abbey Road Studio 1. Whitacre's Soaring Leap initiative is a dynamic one-day workshop where singers, conductors and composers read, rehearse and perform several of his works.

Whitacre has addressed the U.N. Leaders programme and given a TED talk in March 2011 on his virtual choirs project.He has addressed audiences at Duke, Harvard, The Economist, Seoul Digital Forum and JCDA Conference in Tokyo. From October to December 2010, Whitacre was a visiting Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge during Michaelmas (Autumn) Term. He composed a piece for the Sidney Sussex college choir, and worked with students in masterclasses and workshops.

Many of Eric Whitacre's works have entered the standard choral and symphonic repertories and have become the subject of scholarly works and doctoral dissertations. Whitacre has received composition awards from the Barlow International Composition Competition, the ACDA and the American Composers Forum. In 2001, he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the Raymond C. Brock commission by the ACDA.

Eric Whitacre currently lives in London with his wife, Grammy award winning soprano, Hila Plitmann and their son.