Patrick Hawes

Born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, the son of publican parents, Hawes grew up along the Lincolnshire coast and was educated at De Aston School. He read music at St Chad's College, University of Durham as organ scholar, and was also conductor of the University Chamber Choir and the University Symphony Orchestra. During his research year, he founded and conducted the University Chamber Singers.

He went on to work as a teacher of music and English, firstly at Pangbourne College (1981–1990) where he produced his first major work, the dramatic cantata The Wedding at Cana.[1] This led to him becoming Composer in Residence at Charterhouse School (1990–1997).

Leaving teaching in 1997 to pursue his career as a composer, he wrote his first film score in 2002 for 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.[2] The first track on the album Quanta Qualia was subsequently covered by Hayley Westenra for her 2005 album Odyssey and a new arrangement with saxophone also featured on the 2014 Voces8 album Eventide.

From 2006 to 2007 Hawes was Composer in Residence at Classic FM where he was commissioned to write twelve pieces for piano, with each 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.[3] and a national tour followed.

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.

Hawes was commissioned by HRH Charles, Prince of Wales to write the Highgrove Suite in 2009.[4] This began as a one-movement work for harp and strings and was premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on the Prince's sixtieth birthday by the royal harpist Claire Jones and the Philharmonia Orchestra.[5] Three pieces for the same forces completed the suite, each inspired by an aspect of 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.[6]

Hawes' Lazarus Requiem premiered at the Cadogan Hall, London in 2008 and 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 2013, Hawes signed to Decca Records[7] and his album with them, Angel, was released on 3 March 2014 and secured Hawes' first Number One in the classical charts.[8] 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 2015, Hawes produced his clarinet concerto for Emma Johnson which Gramophone called "musically nourishing...a fine work...gorgeous..."[9] In 2017 he wrote two pieces for The King's Singers one in Latin and the other in English both based on the same text Musica Dei Donum and The Gift of Music.

His eighth album, Revelation, released on Naxos Records February 2017, saw Hawes collaborate with Grammy and Juno-nominated Elora Singers, Canada.[10] The album features two collections - Revelation which sets the dramatic text from St John's Book of Revelation and Beatitudes sets Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount - and standalone pieces exploring key sentences from the New Testament.

In 2018, he recorded and premiered his largest work to date: The Great War Symphony.[11] 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.[12] The work received its World Premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 9 October 2018[13] and its US premiere at Carnegie Hall in New York on 11 November 2018 (Armistice Day).[14]

In 2019, he was made an Honorary Fellow of his alma mater St Chad's College, University of Durham.[15]

In 2020 he wrote the carol "Still, Still the Night", with words by his brother Andrew Hawes, for The Self-Isolation Choir: a UK-based virtual choir to which he had taught his Quanta Qualia earlier in the year.[16] The carol was premiered at the choir's virtual Nine Lessons and Carols on 20 December 2020.[17][18]

In 2021, he released his tenth album The Fire of Love. Recorded with The Same Stream Choir and James Jordan (conductor), it features two choral collections the first based on the writings of 14th century English hermit Richard Rolle and the second based on the Songs of Innocence by William Blake. And in October 2023 he released his first Christmas album - The Nativity - recorded with the Voce Chamber Choir of Connecticut.

He currently lives near the Norfolk coast, and is inspired by the beauty of nature, English literature and heritage, and his Christian faith.[19] Hawes remains a keen organist, holding the Fellowship award from the Royal College of Organists.

• Blue in Blue (2004) – Black Box BBM1081 & (2005) – Universal Classics and Jazz UCJ 4763020 (re-release plus new recordings)
• Towards the Light (2006) – Sony & (2010) – Decca CFM FW 148
• Song of Songs (2009) – Signum SIGCD162
• Fair Albion (2009) – Signum SIGCD178
• Highgrove Suite (2010) – Classic FM / Decca CFMD16
• Lazarus Requiem (2012) – Signum SIGCD282
• Angel (2014) – Decca 3742046
• Revelation (2017) – Naxos 8.573720
• The Great War Symphony (2018) – Classic FM / Decca CFMD64
• The Fire of Love (2021) - GIA Choral Works / Naxos CD1092
• The Nativity (2023) – Signum SIGCD752

• Official website
• The Great War Symphony Official Website
• Daily Telegraph article The Great War Symphony
• Patrick Hawes' homepage at Chester Music
• Patrick Hawes' homepage at Music Sales Film & TV
• Performance of Hawes' Reflexionem