His tutors were Edward Dent, Cyril Rootham, Hubert Middleton, Henry Moule, Philip Radcliffe, Boris Ord, and Patrick Hadley.

He served in the Royal Navy[2] during the Second World War, first on Atlantic convoys, then for two years as mine disposal officer in the Faroe Islands.

He was then on the staff of the enemy mining section of HMS Vernon until, following an accident in 1944, he was invalided out and returned to Cambridge to complete his degree in music in 1946.

[3] From 1947 to 1953, Wilkinson was director of the Hertfordshire Rural Music School at Hitchin, conducting the Hertford Choir, who celebrated the Festival of Britain by commissioning "Cutty Sark" for voices and strings from the young Antony Hopkins.

They appeared at the major festivals: frequently at Aldeburgh, Bath, Cheltenham, Edinburgh and several times at The Proms,[1] where Edward Greenfield described them as "a choir to equal, or even outshine, any in this country" (The Guardian).

[This quote needs a citation] They also travelled widely abroad, to Ireland, Belgium, France, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Thailand, Australia and Hong Kong.

The first of these commissions was a work by Wilfrid Mellers; among his successors are Richard Rodney Bennett,[6] Michael Ball, Judith Bingham, Stephen Dodgson, Geoffrey Burgon, Peter Dickinson, John Gardner, Kenneth Leighton, John McCabe, Elizabeth Maconchy, Nicholas Maw, Alan Bullard, Robin Orr and William Walton (Cantico del Sole[7]).

Warm reviews followed: "In the field of choral music, Stephen Wilkinson is a genius" (The Yorkshire Post);[This quote needs a citation] "Simply a great choral conductor" (South China Morning Post);[This quote needs a citation] "No praise could overstate the merits of Stephen Wilkinson's direction" (The Guardian).

Some of the group's many alumni now leading national/international careers are: Jonathan Cohen, described as "one of Britain's finest young musicians"[15] (Associate Conductor, Les Arts Florissants), Steven Wilkie (adjudicator, Young Musician of the Year[16]), Clare Duckworth (RPO), Jonathan Martindale (Manchester Camerata), David Adams (leader, WNO orchestra).

At the Manger and The Garden, for voice and viols, were written for his daughter, mezzo-soprano Clare Wilkinson,[20][failed verification] and Fretwork, and feature on their disk The Silken Tent.