Dan Locklair’s music has never been about fashion. His traditional style is lyrical, tonal and well structured, enriched by gentle touches of modern harmonic colour. Born in North Carolina, in 1949, he has built a distinguished career as composer, organist and teacher, long associated with Wake Forest University, where he served for decades as composer-in-residence and professor of music. Though especially admired for choral and organ music, his output spans orchestral, chamber and large-scale vocal works. This new Convivium release offers a splendid overview of his secular choral writing.

Recorded at Saffron Hall in April 2025, this generously filled 77-minute programme draws together works written across more than three decades. At its heart is the five-movement a cappella cycle Sing to the World, a celebration of music setting texts by Whitman, Longfellow, Phillis Wheatley, Henry Van Dyke and Tomás de Iriarte. The literary range across the disc is striking, with Frost, Yeats and Tagore also represented. In spite of its secular intent, the music on this disc remains rooted in Anglican and American church traditions.

Locklair’s settings are unfussy and direct, and Phoenix Consort respond superbly to that quality: their singing breathes beautifully with the syntax of the text, bringing impressive unity and balance in the ensemble and a sincerity that serves Locklair’s conventional but consistently engaging writing very well.

What this disc shows above all is Locklair’s immaculate craftsmanship, his emotional openness and his sensitivity to poetry. Beautifully performed and intelligently programmed, Sing to the World confirms him as a key figure in contemporary American choral music.