Bob Chilcott has been involved in choral music for most of his life having been a chorister and Choral Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, and a member of the vocal ensemble The King’s Singers for twelve years. He has been a full-time composer since 1997 and has over one hundred works published by Oxford University Press. He has also worked as an editor and arranger of a number of anthologies for OUP including World Carols for Choirs, Spirituals for Choirs, Jazz Folksongs for Choirs and the Christmas volume Gaudete.

His work has been embraced by many choral organisations and festivals worldwide including the Association of British Choral Directors, the American Choral Directors Association, Europa Cantat, Festival 500 in Newfoundland and the Song Festival in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2009 he will return for the second consecutive year to conduct his work at the 'Golden Week' choral workshop of the Japan Choral Association. Two large-scale new works will be premiered over the next two years. In 2009 his Salisbury Vespers will be performed at the opening concert of the Salisbury Festival by more than 600 locally based choral singers and players. In 2010 his Requiem will be premiered in Oxford by The Oxford Bach Choir and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and subsequently by the co-commissioners, The Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church Choir in Dallas, Texas.

From 1997 to 2003 he was conductor of the Royal College of Music Chorus in London. Since 2002 he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers. He has also conducted many distinguished choirs worldwide including the RIAS Kammerchor in Berlin, the World Youth Choir, Jauna Musika in Lithuania, Orphei Drangar in Sweden, the Taipei Chamber Singers and the Tower New Zealand Youth Choir.

His music has been recorded by a number of choirs including The Sixteen, King’s College Choir Cambridge, Westminster Abbey Choir, The King’s Singers, The Chamber Choir of Europe and Grex Musicus from Helsinki. In a review of his Signum recording Man I Sing with the BBC Singers he was hailed by The Gramophone magazine as “one of the finest choral composers at work in Britain today.”