| Biography | Stephen Wilkinson, MBE (29 April 1919-10 August 2021) was an English choral conductor.
As a boy, he was a chorister at Christ Church, Oxford, and studied English and music at the University of Cambridge. He was organ scholar of Queens' College, and studied the harpsichord with Boris Ord and singing with George Parker. During World War II, he served in the Royal Navy, and was mentioned in despatches "for courage and undaunted devotion to duty" in August 1944.
From 1951-2, Wilkinson was director of the Hertfordshire Rural Music School, and in 1953 was appointed to the staff of the BBC. He became conductor of the BBC Northern Singers in 1962, and remained in this role for forty years, directing them five times at The Proms. He also directed the William Byrd Singers, with whom he was closely associated from their formation in 1970, together with their companion string ensemble Capriccio, founded in 1991. Composers such as John McCabe have dedicated works to Wilkinson. He was appointed MBE in 1992 for services to choral music.
Wilkinson retired from conducting the William Byrd Singers in May 2009 at the age of 90, after 39 years.
Also increasingly active as a composer of choral music and song, a recording of Wilkinson's choral music entitled Dover Beach was released in 2012 on the label Deux-Elles. |