Kate Hill lives and composes on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills.
There is a wealth of musical life here. The Three Choirs Festival moves each year from Worcester to Hereford and on to Gloucester. These three Cathedral cities were home to Elgar and his contemporaries. Sacred music is at the heart of things.
Coming from a high church Anglo Catholic educational background- where the choir robed in a tiny vestry high above the chapel and the liturgy was central to daily life - setting these services for upper voices was a natural progression. Additional anthems and psalm settings, commissions and wedding music followed.
The mix of classic and contemporary harmony reflects time spent at Leeds College of Music and Trinity College of Music, London where she was awarded the Vaughan Williams Scholarship for postgraduate study and followed by postgraduate studies at at Berklee College of Jazz in Boston, USA.
Today her works are represented by Jubilate in the UK, and Hope Publishing Company in the USA and Canada.
‘Kate has the ability to marry text and music with a deft and delicate hand. I have been fortunate to sing several pieces written by her, both secular and sacred, for vocal ensembles as well as solo voice with piano. She wrote a haunting setting of Goethe’s ‘Wandrers Nachtlied’. The harmonies are a remarkable blend of traditional and modern with subtle evidence of her extraordinary wealth of experience as a jazz pianist. Her work has individuality and integrity. It is considered and complex whilst remaining accessible and appealing to performers and audience.’ Sue Lupton (Singer, teacher & examiner)