Composer Details

James Whitbourn

James Whitbourn is a versatile composer of film, television and concert works. His range of style moves from lush symphonic television scores to the sonorities of his choral works. He memorably composed the BBC’s title music for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and was commissioned with Poet Laureate Andrew Motion to write a new work for the broadcast of a Westminster Abbey service for the victims of 9/11 – subsequently performed in New York on the first anniversary of the attacks. He also composed the title music for the BBC coverage of the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day as well as many other programmes and series. James studied at Magdalen College, Oxford where he was a choral scholar and began his career in television as a programme maker for the BBC, winning many awards including a Royal Television Society Craft Award and a Sony Gold.

‘For [the BBC’s Son of God], James had created a broad brushed landscape, a timeless introduction of breadth with expert control of orchestral forces.’ Robert Tear