Nico Muhly appointed inaugural Christ Church Composer in Residence

The launching of this collaboration coincides with our celebrations of the Cathedral Choir’s 500th year, and will see Muhly build a collection of works over the coming years. The first commission to result from the partnership, a carol based on a text from the 16th York Mystery Play (Herod and the Magi), With Hande and Harte received its first performance on Saturday 17 January in the Cathedral during a special service of music and readings for the season of Epiphany. A cantata will be premiered at a special anniversary concert in the Cathedral this summer and later toured internationally. Beyond the new works he will compose, Muhly will be immersed in the musical life of the Foundation, working with young musicians at Christ Church Cathedral School and with our undergraduate students. 

Nico Muhly (b. 1981) is a Grammy Award-nominated composer, arranger and collaborator based in New York. He has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Tallis Scholars, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the BBC Singers. He has also worked with artists such as Sufjan Stevens, the National, Paul Simon and James Blake, and scored film and television productions including The Reader (2008), Kill Your Darlings (2013), and Pachinko (2022-2024). He currently holds also posts as Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and as a Collaborative Partner at The Juilliard School. He has recently concluded a three-year long project with the Choir of Magdalen College. The resulting album, With Eys Lift Up, will be released this summer on Coro Records, while The Tallis Scholars are also releasing a new recording of his compositions in 2026.

“We are delighted to be able to mark such a significant year in the history of the Cathedral Choir by launching this cultural collaboration. It is a great joy that Nico Muhly has accepted our invitation to join us at an important time for the Foundation's music,” said The Very Reverend Professor Sarah Foot, Dean of Christ Church. “This partnership will provide a wonderful opportunity for our young musicians to work with, and be inspired by, a composer and musician of Nico's skill and eminence." 

“I’m thrilled and eager to start my work as Christ Church’s inaugural Composer in Residence and meet the college, school and Cathedral communities,” said Nico Muhly. “I hope that the body of work I provide, consisting of works ranging from large-scale compositions to smaller pieces, will offer a musical throughline through daily worship and the church year, voicing the heartbeat of the musical traditions championed in this place for five centuries."

"It’s enormously exciting to see Nico join us at Christ Church as Composer in Residence," writes Peter Holder, Organist (Director of Music) of Christ Church Cathedral. "Recent and present anniversaries – in 2026 for the Cathedral Choir – afford us both an opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary musical heritage we inherit here, but also to look forward in new and distinctive ways. The energy and inspiration that Nico will bring to us, not just in his music, but in coaching our musicians across the Foundation, gives us much to look forward to in the years ahead."