A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm and face gestures.
The War Requiem, Op. 66, is a large-scale setting of the Requiem composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The War Requiem was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. The traditional Latin texts are interspersed, in telling juxtaposition, with extra-liturgical poems by Wilfred Owen, written during World War I.
Westminster Abbey Choir School is a boarding preparatory school for boys in Westminster, London and the only remaining choir school in the United Kingdom which exclusively educates choristers. It is located in Dean's Yard, by Westminster Abbey. It educates about 30 boys, aged 8–13 who sing in the Choir of Westminster Abbey, which takes part in state and national occasions as well as singing evensong every day and gives concert performances worldwide. Recent tours include to America, Hungary and Moscow. Other tours have included Australia, America and Hong Kong. The school is one of only three choir schools that educate only the male trebles of the choir, the others being Saint Thomas Choir School in New York City and Escolania de Montserrat in Spain. The headmaster is Jonathan Milton, former headmaster of The Abbey School, Tewkesbury. The organist and master of the choristers is James O'Donnell, former Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral.
Westminster Choir College is a residential conservatory of music located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Westminster Choir College educates men and women at the undergraduate and graduate levels for musical careers in music education, voice performance, piano performance, organ performance, pedagogy, music theory and composition, conducting, sacred music, and arts management; professional training in musical skills with an emphasis on performance is complemented by studies in the liberal arts. All students study with Westminster's voice faculty, the largest voice faculty in the world. The school's proximity to New York City and Philadelphia provides students with easy access to the musical resources of both cities.
The American Boychoir School was a boarding/day middle school located in Hopewell, New Jersey, and the home of the American Boychoir. The school served boys in grades 4–8, many of whom came from across the United States and from many countries. It was one of only two boychoir boarding schools in the United States, the other being Saint Thomas Choir School in New York City. In 2002, the school was embroiled in a scandal due to allegations of sexual abuse of students by faculty and other students. The school served as the basis for a fictionalized choir in the 2014 film Boychoir.
James Litton directed the American Boychoir from 1985 to 2001 and is widely recognized as one of the leading choral conductors of the day.
W. Benjamin Hutto was an American musician who specialized in writing, producing, and directing choral music. He served as Director of Choral Activities and Director of Performing Arts at St. Albans School for Boys and the National Cathedral School for Girls in Washington D.C. He was also Director of Music and Organist at St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square.
The King's College Choir is a British choir. It is considered one of today's most accomplished and renowned representatives of the great English choral tradition. 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.
The Raleigh Boychoir is a 70-member strong choral group based in Raleigh, NC that educates and trains school-aged boys in the art of singing and performing the finest music in the boychoir tradition. The boys who participate have an opportunity to learn and perform some of the world's great choral music. The choristers, conductors and musicians of the Raleigh Boychoir contribute generously with their talents to the musical and cultural life of Raleigh and the greater Triangle area and beyond.
Patrick Larley is a British composer.
Jeffri W. Bantz was an American classical conductor and teacher.
Mark Anthony Carpio is a choral conductor, piano accompanist and a countertenor, who is the present choirmaster of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Kilyawan Boys Choir, Voces Aurorae and Pansol Choir. He is also a faculty member at the Conducting and Choral Ensemble Department of the University of the Philippines College of Music in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge is considered to be one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world. It 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.
Andrew Cantrill is a British-born organist and choral director. He has held cathedral positions in New Zealand and the United States, and is now organist of the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, Suffolk. He is a Fellow, prize-winner and former Trustee Council member of the Royal College of Organists, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a tutor for the RCO Academy Organ School, an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, an active recitalist, and a sought-after broadcaster, writer and presenter.
Arpad Darazs was a Hungarian-American music educator who was widely known as one of the few in the Western hemisphere as an authority on the Kodály method of choral instruction. Before he gained wide acclaim for his work at the University of South Carolina, he garnered acclaim with the success of the St. Killian's Boychoir of Farmingdale, New York. The boys' choir not only sang on the Sonny Fox show, but also on a Christmas album with Andre Kostelanetz, as well as with the Leonard Bernstein at the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the United Nations.
David Martyn Jones is a Welsh conductor, composer/arranger and pianist.
The Winnipeg Singers are a 24 voice chamber choir from Canada led by director Yuri Klaz.
one of Canada's premier choirs, follows a rich tradition of choral music in Winnipeg.
Sarah Baldock is an English organist and choral conductor, formerly the Organist and Master of the Choristers of Chichester Cathedral. She is notable as one of the earliest women to be appointed to the senior music post at a Church of England cathedral. She was married to counter-tenor David Hurley. Baldock has become known as a popular soloist in the UK and abroad.
Scott Dettra is an American concert organist and church musician. He tours in North America and Europe, and is Director of Music and Organist at the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas. He is also Organist of The Crossing, a professional chamber choir based in Philadelphia. From 2007 to 2012, he was Organist of Washington National Cathedral.
Herbert Brown Huffman (1905–1968) was a prominent American choral director during the mid 20th century who founded the Columbus Boychoir School, now the American Boychoir School. For over 75 years, this internationally acclaimed choral group has performed in venues across the United States and in overseas locations.
