Choir of King's College London | |
---|---|
Choir | |
Founded | c. 1843 |
Founder | William Henry Monk |
Genre | Choir |
Members |
|
Music director | Joseph Fort |
Associated groups | The Strand Consort |
Website | www |
The Choir of King's College London is a mixed-voice choir within British university King's College London whose primary function is to provide music in the Chapel of King's College London, a Grade I listed Renaissance Revival chapel. One of the leading university choirs in England and the wider United Kingdom, since its revival in 1945, it has gained an international reputation as one of the leading university collegiate choirs in the world.
King's College London was founded in 1828-29 by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in the tradition of the Church of England, [1] and worship featured heavily in the life of the university from its foundation.[ citation needed ]
The College Chapel was one of the first parts of the university to be constructed in 1829, located on the second floor of King's Building. Keen to improve the provision of music at services, in the early 1840s the College sought to establish a choir.[ citation needed ]
Founded around 1843 by William Henry Monk, it was noted that
certain gentlemen connected with King's had... been efficiently supplying the choir. [2]
From 1945–1952, the choir was directed by Harold Last, then to E.H. Warrell who held an extensive 38 year tenure. David Trendell was then appointed, directing the choir for 22 years. Following the sudden death of Trendell, Gareth Wilson was temporarily appointed for one year. He was succeeded by the choir's current director of music, Joseph Fort. [3]
Since 1945 the choir has been conducted by the Director of Music, also appointed College Organist and Lecturer in Music. [3]
The choir normally consists of between 25 and 30 singers, most of whom are undergraduate students reading Music at King's College London.
A choral scholar also serves as the choir's librarian who works alongside the choir administrator.
The organ is played by the organ scholar who is typically also an undergraduate student. If the director of music is not present for any reason, an organ scholar takes responsibility for conducting the choir.
The organ scholar for the 2022/23 academic year is Charles Maxtone-Smith. [4]
In term time, the choir usually sings in the Chapel of King's College London twice a week, providing music for the College's main acts of corporate worship:
Most famed for their Advent Carols Services, the choir performs across three nights to meet demand. The choir also sings in extra services such as All Souls and Ash Wednesday Vigils, remembrance and memorial services.
Many members of the choir also sing with the neighbouring St Mary le Strand church, separately from their duties as choral scholars at King's College London.
The choir as a whole regularly sings for worship outside the university including at Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral, both located near the College's historic campus on the Strand in central London, the site of the College Chapel.
In 2020, the choir started livestreaming services on their YouTube channel as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. [6] Since the pandemic, the choir has continued to embrace technology and share recordings of their services on YouTube.
The choir maintains a strong recording and touring schedule, having previously performed as far afield as Italy, Nigeria and Hong Kong. [7] The choir also performs regularly in major concert venues and holds numerous appearances at music festivals across the country. [8]
Aside from sacred music sung mostly in choral evensong services, the choir also performs a wide range of music, including contemporary mass settings and choral works by Eleanor Alberga, Charles Stanford, Herbert Howells, and Imogen Holst, with the choir having recently sung the world première of Ed Nesbit's (one of the college composition lecturer's) The King's Service. [9]
The choir often performs with symphony orchestras both within the United Kingdom and abroad, with the ensemble giving the world première of Simon Rowland-Jones's Smile, O voluptuous cool-breath’d Earth! alongside the Orion Orchestra in November 2020. [10] In April 2021 the choir performed the St John Passion with the Hanover Band, [11] with other performing engagements including multiple concerts featuring the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil as part of the Barnes Music Festival and at St John's Smith Square.
Tours in recent years have seen the choir perform in the US (2019), Nigeria (2018), [12] US and Canada (2017), Germany (2016), and Italy (2015).
External audio | |
---|---|
You may listen to the Choir of King's College London conducted by Joseph Fort performing the conductor's own chamber arrangement of Gustav Holst's The Cloud Messenger in 2019 on classicalmusicsentinel.com |
Since 2009, the choir has primarily recorded a number of critically acclaimed recordings with Delphian. [13] Repertory ranges from more traditional Anglican worship music including music from Byrd and Palestrina to premièring the works of contemporary composers such as Kerensa Briggs. [14]
Under the baton of Trendell, the choir enjoyed a relationship with the Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where they released multiple albums together with Delphian. [15] The choir has also worked with a number of instrumental ensembles and guest artists, most recently with Sean Shibe for the choir's release of Say it to the Still World and with the Strand Ensemble for The Cloud Messenger. [16]
Previously having worked with Hyperion, Gaudeamus and Herald AV Publications, the choir now records exclusively with Delphian. [13]
Some previous recordings include:
Year | Award and category | Work | Result | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | Gramophone | Early Music Award | John Tavener and William Byrd | Nominated | [20] |
2016 | Gramophone | Editor's Choice | In Memoriam - A Tribute to David Trendell | [21] | |
2022 | Gramophone | Editor's Choice | Edward Nesbit: Sacred Choral Music | [22] |
King's Voices is an English choir, and is the mixed-voice chapel choir of King's College, Cambridge. It is a resident choir to the college's chapel, alongside the Choir of King's College, Cambridge.
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge is an English Anglican choir. It was created by King Henry VI, who founded King's College, Cambridge, in 1441, to provide daily singing in his Chapel, which remains the main task of the choir to this day.
David John Briggs is an English organist and composer.
Francis John Roy Grier is an English classical composer and psychoanalyst.
Ralph Allwood is a British choral conductor, composer and teacher, who currently holds the appointment of Fellow Commoner advising in Music at Queens' College, Cambridge. He was previously the Precentor and Director of Music at Eton College between 1985 and 2011. He had previously headed the music departments at Pangbourne and Uppingham.
James Anthony O'Donnell is a British organist, choral conductor and academic teacher who has been a professor of organ at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in Connecticut, United States, since 2023.
The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge is part of the English cathedral tradition, having been founded to sing the daily liturgy in the College Chapel, though it is set apart from other English choirs of this tradition by the frequent inclusion of Continental works in its repertoire and its emphasis on polyphonic interpretations. Alongside the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, it is one of the two most famous collegiate choirs in Cambridge, having had over 90 recordings published. The choir consists of fifteen Choral Scholars and twenty Choristers and Probationers, all of whom are members of St John's College, many of whom have proceeded to become distinguished musicians.
Robert Quinney is Director of the Choir of New College, Oxford, and was formerly Sub-Organist at Westminster Abbey and Director of Music at Peterborough Cathedral. In addition to his work at New College, he has a freelance career as soloist, ensemble player, and writer on music. From October 2009 till 2014 he was Director of Oundle for Organists, whose residential courses provide inspiring tuition for young organists.
Queens' College Chapel Choir, Cambridge is the choir of Queens' College, Cambridge, England. It is a mixed collegiate Chapel Choir composed both of Choral Scholars and volunteers from across Cambridge University. Between 2011 and 2015 the choir was run by Director of Music, Silas Wollston, and two undergraduate organ scholars. Between 2015 and 2022 most services were directed by British conductor Ralph Allwood. Nicholas Morris joined the college as Director of Music in September 2022.
John Butt is an English orchestral and choral conductor, organist, harpsichordist and scholar. He holds the Gardiner Chair of Music at the University of Glasgow and is music director of the Dunedin Consort with whom he has made award-winning recordings in historically informed performance. He is a prolific scholar, conductor and performer of works by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Merton College Chapel is the church of Merton College, Oxford, England. Dedicated to St Mary and St John the Baptist, the chapel was largely completed in its present form by the end of the 13th century. The building retains a number of original stained glass windows, and is noted for its acoustics. A choral foundation was established in 2008 by Peter Phillips.
The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, is a mixed-voice choir whose primary function is to lead services in the chapel of Clare College, Cambridge. Since its founding in 1972, the choir has gained an international reputation as one of the leading university choral groups in the world.
The Chapel of King's College London is a Grade I listed 19th century chapel located in the Strand Campus of King's College, London, England. Originally designed by Sir Robert Smirke in 1831, the Renaissance Revival chapel seen today was redesigned by the prominent Victorian Gothic architect Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1864.
The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge is a Cambridge collegiate choir, under the direction of the musicologist and conductor David Skinner, with Senior Organ Scholar Luca Myers and Junior Organ Scholar Francis Fowler. The composer Eric Whitacre spent three months in the College in 2010, later being appointed Composer in Residence for five years. The current composer in residence is Nico Muhly.
The Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge is a collegiate choir in the University of Cambridge, until recently directed by the Buxtehude scholar Geoffrey Webber. The Director of Music at the college is by tradition known as 'Precentor'. The current Precentor is Matthew Martin.
Geoffrey Webber is a musician and academic, and the former Director of Music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. It is loosely based on the canonical hours of vespers and compline. Old English speakers translated the Latin word vesperas as æfensang, which became 'evensong' in modern English. Typically used in reference to the Anglican daily office's evening liturgy, it can also refer to the pre-Reformation form of vespers or services of evening prayer from other denominations, particularly within the Anglican Use of the Catholic Church.
David Robin Charles Trendell was the English organist, lecturer and Director of Music at King's College London. He specialised in the music of William Byrd.
The Choir of Somerville College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, is mixed voice and is led by a Director of Chapel Music, currently William Dawes, incumbent since 2017. In conjunction with the organ scholars, the choir is central to the musical life of the college and, in its present form, was founded by Francis Knights and Sam Bayliss in 2001. Previous Directors of Chapel Music include David Crown, who directed the choir between 2007 and 2015. The choir sings in Somerville College Chapel every Sunday during term and performs regularly in concerts organised by Somerville Music Society. The organ of the college chapel is a traditionally voiced instrument by Harrison & Harrison. Somerville offers up to five Choral Exhibitions each year to applicants reading any subject.
Kerensa Rosie Joanne Briggs is a British composer, primarily of choral and organ music. In 2022 she was appointed composer-in-residence with the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus in Missouri, USA, for a two-year term.