Christopher Willcock

Christopher Willcock (born 1947) is an Australian Jesuit priest and composer of liturgical music. Life Willcock studied music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (graduated 1974) and theology in Melbourne with the Jesuit Theological College, a member college of the United Faculty of Theology. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1977. He then pursued doctoral studies in sacramental and liturgical theology at the Institut Catholique de Paris. In 1998, he won the University of Melbourne’s Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. Collaborating with cartoonist and artist Michael Leunig, Willcock won the 2006 Classical Music Award for Choral or Vocal Work of the Year with excerpts from his work titled Southern Star (his cycle of nine Christmas carols composed in collaboration with Leunig). The carols are composed for 4-part adult voices, or 3-part children’s voices and are accompanied by harp - reminiscent of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. Other major works have been performed by the Tallis Scholars (May 2000) and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (December 1998). In 2006 he was the St Thomas More Chair of Jesuit Studies at the University of Western Australia. He also gave the annu