Composer and choir director Philip Stopford is known for accessible a cappella and accompanied choral works. He has directed major choirs in Britain and the U.S. Stopford (often billed as Philip W.J. Stopford or Philip W J Stopford) was born in 1977. When he was seven, his mother took him to London and told him he could go to the zoo or to the Madame Tussauds wax gallery. Instead, she signed him up for an audition at Westminster Abbey, where he was accepted into the choir. He was a member from 1986 to 1990, also taking up the piano, violin, and organ during this period. From 1990 to 1995, he attended Bedford School on a music scholarship. Stopford went on to Truro Cathedral as an organ scholar, serving under conductor Andrew Nethsingha and beginning to publish his own choral works. From 1996 to 1999, Stopford attended Keble College, Oxford, as an organ scholar (a musician who performs in exchange for scholarship support); there, he earned a bachelor's degree in music and directed the College Chapel Choir, which he took on tour to several British cathedrals. After a year as organ scholar at Canterbury Cathedral and a stint as assistant organist at Chester Cathedral, Stopford moved to Belfast as director of music at St. Anne's Cathedral from 2003 to 2010. When he started there, he was the youngest person active as an Anglican cathedral organist. He continued to compose, and in 2005, an album devoted to his works was issued by Priory Records as Volume 2 of its British Church Composer Series. After several years as an independent conductor and composer, Stopford became the director of music at Christ Church in Bronxville, New York, after serving there as composer-in-residence. He remained there from 2016 to 2021. Stopford's reputation as a composer grew rapidly during the 2010s as he issued many new works, and the Truro Cathedral Choir recorded an album of his works, Do Not Be Afraid, in 2012. His pieces appeared in the Hall of Fame of the Classic FM radio network in 2013, 2014 (three works), and 2015. Stopford is known for short hymns and other works in Latin and English, but he has also composed longer works, including the Missa Deus Nobisum. He returned to Britain in 2021 during his father's final illness but retained ties in the U.S. and was at work on commissions from several churches there. As of the mid-2020s, he was serving as president of the Leighton Buzzard Festival Singers. Several more collections of his work appeared on the Priory Records label, and in 2024, the Choir of St. Luke's, Chelsea, issued an album of his music on the Naxos label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi

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