Boundaries and borderlines have never constrained the creative imagination of Will Todd. The British composer and jazz pianist was born in County Durham in 1970 and wrote his first pieces during childhood. His broad-minded musical curiosity took root during formative lessons as a scholarship student at Durham School and Bristol University; it later found natural outlets through his eponymous jazz trio and a series of works for choir, stage and orchestra. Todd has woven jazz and blues harmonies into his substantial catalogue of compositions for amateur and professional choirs, notably so in Mass In Blue (a breakthrough work that has received hundreds of performances since its premier in 2003, including at Lincoln Center in New York City and London’s Barbican Centre) and Ode to a Nightingale (2011). He secured his place at the top table of contemporary choral composers thanks to high-profile commissions, including The Call of Wisdom (2012), composed for HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Thanksgiving Service, and the hauntingly beautiful I Shall be an Angel of Peace (2021), one of four works written for The Sixteen.