Eric Whitacre
Grammy Award–winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is among today’s most popular musicians. A graduate of The Juilliard School, his works are performed worldwide and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united well over 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries. Among his recent accolades and awards, Whitacre received the Richard D. Colburn Award from the Colburn School and an Honorary Doctor of Arts from Chapman University. His long-term relationship with Decca Classics has produced several No.1 albums which have enduring success.
Whitacre is currently musician in residence at Somerville College, Oxford University, having recently completed a residency as visiting composer at Pembroke College, Cambridge University. He is also an ambassador for the Royal College of Music in London and is proud to be a Yamaha artist. While living in California, Whitacre served consecutive terms as artist in residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
His newest work, Eternity in an Hour, was recently released on Decca Classics, having premiered at the BBC Proms in 2024. In 2025, The Pacific Has No Memory, commissioned by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, received its premiere with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
A widely respected conductor, Whitacre has worked with the world’s leading choirs and orchestras, including the Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2024, he conducted the Louisville Orchestra in a program of his music paired with Mozart’s Requiem. His collaboration with Spitfire Audio resulted in two volumes of a trailblazing vocal sample library which became an instant bestseller and is used by composers the world over.
A charismatic speaker, Whitacre has given keynote addresses for Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, and global organizations, including Apple, Google, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the United Nations Speaker’s Program. His mainstage talks at the influential TED conference in Long Beach received standing ovations. He premiered a new version of Deep Field: The Impossible Magnitude of our Universe at SXSW Austin in 2026.