Menu Close

Gender Awards Guest Speaker

Eric Whitacre

Guest Speaker and Entertainment
Eric Whitacre
Conductor, Composer, Speaker

Grammy award-winning composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre, is among today’s most popular musicians. His works are programmed worldwide and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united singers from more than 145 countries over the last decade. Born in Nevada in 1970, Eric is a graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music (New York). He completed the second term as Artist in Resistance with the Los Angeles Master Chorale Corral in 2020 having served five years as Composer in Residence at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom).

His composition have been widely recorded and his debut album as a conductor on Universal, Light and Gold, went straight to the top of the charts earning a Grammy. As a guest conductor he has drawn capacity audiences to concerts with many of the world’s leading orchestras and choirs in venues from Carnegie Hall (New York) to the Royal Albert Hall (London). Insatiably curious and a lover of all types of music Eric has worked with legendary Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer as well as British pop icons Laura Mvula, Imogen Heap and Annie Lennox.

In 2018 his composition, Deep Field, became the foundation for a pioneer in collaboration with NASA, the Space Telescope Science Institute, Music Productions and film-makers 59 Productions. His longform work The Sacred Veil, a profound meditation on love, life and loss was premiered by the Los Angeles Master Chorale conducted by the composer, and released on Signum Records in 2020.

His collaboration with Spitfire Audio resulted in a trail-blazing vocal sample library, became an instant best-seller and is used by composers the world-over. A charismatic speaker, Eric Whitacre has given the keynote address for Ted, Apple, Google, the United Nations Speaker’s Program in Education and for numerous global institutions.