Eric Whitacre

Eric Whitacre is an American composer and conductor, born January 2, 1970, in Reno, Nevada, best known for his choral music, which has become among the most performed and recorded in the contemporary choral repertoire. He studied composition at the Juilliard School and rose to prominence in the late 1990s and 2000s with pieces that combined lush, cluster-based harmony with accessible, emotionally direct melodic writing, appealing to both amateur and professional choirs worldwide.

His best-known works, including «Sleep», «Water Night», and «When David Heard», are staples of high school, university, and professional choir repertoires, prized for their shimmering tone clusters and dramatic dynamic swells. Whitacre also gained wide attention as a pioneer of the Virtual Choir project, assembling thousands of singers from around the world into single unified performances via video submissions, a format that reshaped how choral music could reach global audiences in the digital era.

Beyond concert choral works, Whitacre has composed for film, most notably contributing music to Disney's Frozen soundtrack world, and continues to conduct his own compositions with orchestras and choirs internationally. His music is distinguished by a distinctive harmonic language built on tone clusters and modal color, and his crossover appeal has made him one of the most widely performed living composers of choral music.