Patrick Hawes

In 2018, he recorded and premiered his largest work to date: The Great War Symphony. This work is a choral symphony in four movements, with each movement depicting a year of World War I. On its release in September 2018, the recording reached No.1 in the Specialist Classical Charts. The work received its World Premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 9 October 2018 and its US premiere at Carnegie Hall in New York on 11 November 2018 (Armistice Day).

His eighth album, Revelation, released on Naxos Records February 2017, is a collaboration with the Elora Singers, Canada.

In 2015, Hawes produced his clarinet concerto for Emma Johnson which Gramophone called "musically nourishing...a fine work...gorgeous..." In 2017 he wrote Musica Dei Donum for the ensemble The King's Singers.

In 2013, Hawes signed to Decca Records and his album with them, Angel, was released on 3 March 2014 and reached Number One in the classical charts. Recorded with soprano Grace Davidson, the Choir of New College, Oxford and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra the album depicts angels in their many forms.

As part of the commemorations of remembrance to mark the First World War, Hawes was commissioned by the Sheringham & Cromer Choral Society in Norfolk to write a large-scale work for choir and orchestra based on the life of nurse Edith Cavell, a heroine of the war who saved many hundreds of soldiers at great risk to herself. The work, Eventide: In Memoriam Edith Cavell was premiered in Norwich Cathedral in July 2014. Hawes was commissioned to write a work for the Aliquando Choir of Henley-upon-Thames based on the words of the Wilfred Owen poem I know the Music for their commemoration of the First World War in November 2014. Another work written by Hawes to commemorate the first battle of the First World War was entitled The Angel of Mons. It premiered in his brother's church in Edenham, Lincolnshire on 23 August 2014, the centenary of the date on which the apparition of the Angel of Mons was said to have occurred.

In 2011, Hawes was commissioned to write a piece for the Lancaster Festival in the United States, for which he produced Te Deum. Hawes was present at the American premiere in July 2011. The UK premiere was in Rochester Cathedral on 3 November 2012.

Hawes's biggest work to date is his Lazarus Requiem. Premiered at the Cadogan Hall, London in 2008, the work was recorded in January 2012 by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Exeter Philharmonic Choir, Exeter Cathedral Choir and the soloists Thomas Walker, Elin Manahan Thomas, Rachael Lloyd, and Julian Rippon. The cathedral premiere took place in Exeter on 17 March 2012. The work intersperses the traditional Latin Requiem text with an account in English of the raising of Lazarus from St John's Gospel.

In May 2012 Hawes completed a song cycle in Welsh for Elin Manahan Thomas based on the poems of 14th century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym.

Hawes was commissioned by The Prince of Wales to write the Highgrove Suite in 2009. This began as a one-movement work for harp and strings and was premiered at Covent Garden on the Prince's sixtieth birthday by the royal harpist Claire Jones and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Three pieces for the same forces completed the suite, each inspired by an aspect of the prince's garden at Highgrove House. The suite premiered at Highgrove on 8 June 2010. A BBC2 Alan Titchmarsh documentary about the gardens at Highgrove and the musical process and aired on 23 September 2010.

April 2009 saw the release of Hawes's third album Song of Songs which consists of six choral pieces for strings and voices along with other works for choir and organ. The recording features the English Chamber Orchestra, Hawes's own choir Conventus and the soprano Elin Manahan Thomas. Hawes joined forces with Thomas once again, and also with Julian Lloyd Webber, for his subsequent album Fair Albion: Visions of England. Both of these releases were made CD of the Week on Classic FM within a six-month period.

From 2006 to 2007 Hawes was Composer in Residence at Classic FM. This position involved writing twelve pieces for piano, with the pieces premiered over a twelve-month period. The pieces were inspired by his move to the Norfolk coast and by the skies and landscapes of the county. The resulting album Towards the Light was voted by Classic FM listeners as the highest new entry in the 2007 Hall of Fame. A national tour followed.

He left teaching to pursue his career in composing. In 2002 he wrote his first film score The Incredible Mrs Ritchie, directed by Paul Johansson. His debut album Blue in Blue, a collection of choral and orchestral pieces, was released in 2004. Made CD of the week on Classic FM in 2004, it was nominated for a Classical Brit award and was voted by Classic FM listeners as the fastest ever and highest new entry into the station's Hall of Fame. The first track on the album Quanta Qualia was subsequently chosen by Hayley Westenra for her 2005 album Odyssey.

His first major work, the oratorio The Wedding at Cana, was first performed by the Pangbourne College Choral Society in 1990. One of the highlights of the work is the duet from the ninth movement The Waters of Love.

Born in Lincolnshire, he studied music as an organ scholar at St Chad's College, University of Durham before working as a teacher of music and English, firstly at Pangbourne College (1981–1990) then as Composer in Residence for Charterhouse School (1990–1997).

Patrick Hawes (born 1958) is a British composer, conductor, organist and pianist.