I was not a good pupil and when I joined Bedales School in Hampshire I was too lazy for academic success to be my priority, writes Roxanna Panufnik. However, I was good at music and in Jonathan Willcocks I found my first inspirational teacher. He immediately saw I had the composing spark and he gave me a lot of his extra time, way beyond the call of duty, to help me with my composition.

Jonathan is the son of Sir David Willcocks, the conductor and composer who had been director of music at King’s College Cambridge. This led me to become immersed in the British choral tradition and it is one of the reasons I have ended up writing so much liturgical choral music.

We had a fantastic chamber choir at Bedales and we went on tour to Belgium with Jonathan. He made the trip so much fun while at the same time inspiring us to do our best.  It was clear that he was very passionate about what he was doing; he had a great energy and was incredibly positive and very funny.