Eric, youre in England at the moment where youve been appointed composer in residence at Cambridge University at Sidney Sussex College. What are your duties as composer in residence?

Well, its the best job in the world, frankly. Really its completely up to me. I can determine how many lectures Id like to give, how many different services Id like to conduct with the choir or sing with. Mostly theres a room set up for me with a piano and I can just go and write there whenever I need to. Its a beautiful job.

Cambridge is at the heart of the English choral tradition, especially the college choirs like Kings and Trinity. Theyre inheritors of a tradition of Cathedral choir singing that goes back hundreds of years. Has that legacy, that tradition, had an impact on your music since youve been there?

Yeah, and even long before I got there. Since I first fell in love with choral music at 18 and began composing at 21 Ive been listening to recordings of British choirs and just fell in love with that sound, that pure clear pristine sound and I think its been the biggest influence frankly on my sound over the years. But its only since Ive gone to Cambridge and had a chance to sing in liturgical services as a member of the choir that its influenced the texts that Ive chosen. For the very first time Ive started writing music that could be used in a liturgy.

Youve said in the past that youve resisted setting liturgical texts but you write that youve discovered the deep wisdom of the liturgy. Was there some moment that changed your mind about setting liturgical texts?

Its a combination of things. First it was just being there in that sacred space, being in these chapels throughout Cambridge and hearing the music and listening to the words of the liturgy in a way I never had before. I was raised an agnostic. Not an atheist but certainly not a Christian and I guess Ive been a sceptic my entire life. I still am, but the other part of it is Im 42 now and so I think Im maybe letting go of some of that young idealism and listening to the poetry of the liturgy in a new way, hearing the humanism in it and its just been deeply moving to me and has caused this music to come flooding out of me.

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Eric Whitacre, Virtual Choir 3.0