Paul Hillier

Over a 50-year career as a conductor and baritone, Paul Hillier has pushed boundaries in his explorations of early and contemporary music. Born in Dorchester, England in 1949, he became a founder member of the Hilliard Ensemble in 1974, a group whose repertoire ranged across the centuries from the polyphony of Pérotin to the holy minimalism of Arvo Pärt. He left the Hilliards in 1990 to form a new group, Theatre of Voices, still with one foot in medieval and Renaissance music but with a stronger focus on contemporary works, including notable recordings of Stockhausen’s Stimmung, David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion and film soundtracks with Jóhann Jóhannsson. Since 2003 he has lived in Copenhagen, where he is artistic director of the vocal group Ars Nova, continuing to perform a range of repertoire but specialising in contemporary music from the Baltic region. He is also artistic director of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Chamber Choir Ireland.