Carol competition winner

4 November 2019

Congratulations to music alumnus Aaron King who has won this year’s Sir David Wilcocks Carol Competition with his new carol, ‘A Spotless Rose’.

Organised by The Bach Choir – one of the country’s largest and most celebrated ensembles – the competition invites original carol compositions for four-part adult choirs. The winning carol was chosen by judges including the choir’s director, David Hill, and its president, the conductor John Rutter. Hill said, ‘Aaron’s carol is very well-crafted with a strong sense of melody and rich harmony,’ while Rutter called it ‘a sensitive, beautifully-voiced setting of a text made famous a century ago’. The text in question is an 1869 translation by Catherine Winkworth of a traditional 15th-century German carol.

Aaron King studied music at Hertford and directed both our chapel choir and the Oxford University String Ensemble during his time here. He has sung with the choirs of Merton and Keble Colleges, the Rodolfus Choir and the BBC Proms Youth Choir. As a student he won the inaugural Oxford University Music Society Composition Competition. Aaron also has a strong interest in composing for instrumental genres including music for film, musical theatre and concert performance, having composed music for several short films as well as three musicals. In 2020 he will pursue an MA in composing at the National Film and Television School under the BAFTA award winning composer John Keane.

Aaron’s winning carol will be performed by The Bach Choir at their ‘Carols at Cadogan’ concert at London’s Cadogan Hall on Wednesday 18 December.