Composer | Jamie W. Hall

Growing up in South Yorkshire mining country, Jamie W. Hall’s entire childhood went by without him ever encountering choral music.
Indeed, his was a landscape entirely without classical music – aside from unavoidable encounters with roaming brass bands – and he spent (or perhaps misspent) his youth wringing pleasure from stage musicals.

It wasn’t until he attended university in the long shadow of a cathedral spire that he found himself thrust into choral singing, and – from the very opening of Tallis’ O Nata Lux – he fell completely in love.

His compositional career didn’t begin until much later when, months into his tenure as a baritone with the BBC Singers, he found himself so inspired by the works of one particular contemporary composer that he was determined to try his own hand.
More than a decade on, Jamie’s choral music draws deeply on his experience as a professional singer with evident craftsmanship and a flair for setting text. He shows an intense understanding of the workings of the human voice and its potential for tonal colour and emotional expression, and his often complex harmonic language (stemming from years steeped in the most complex of contemporary choral scores) is tempered by his singer’s instinct for the linear, and an even more pressing need for there always to be beauty in vocal music.

The diversity of his writing encompasses pieces written for professionals and well as for children, and his recent series of three-part (SAB) sacred works, for church choirs with limited numbers, demonstrates his commitment to community music making.
Through his compositions ‘Sleep, My Jesu’ and ‘O Nata Lux’ , and via his widely appreciated social media presence, Jamie’s Choirs Against Cancer project has raised over £20,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Many of his works are available through Novello, Banks Music Publications and Chichester Music Press.
His works have been recorded for commercial release, broadcast on radio and television throughout the world, and have been performed by such ensembles as ORA, Sonoro, The Choir of HM Tower of London, King’s Junior Voices, Genesis Sixteen, The Queen’s Six, and the BBC Singers.
Forthcoming projects include a 20-minute work for the BBC Singers entitled ‘Sing My Name’, along with ‘Aardvark Carol’, a collaboration with the poets of Great Chishill, which will be performed this Christmas by the professional ensemble Cor Meum. His new set of Preces & Responses will be given their first performance on BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong on 2nd October.