The London Oratory Schola Cantorum Boys Choir

The London Oratory Schola Cantorum performs at weekly masses and services on important feast days during the school year. The choir has made recordings and has performed on several major film soundtracks. The London Oratory Schola Cantorum has also been known as the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School and as the London Oratory School Schola. Founded in 1996 by the school's headmaster, John McIntosh, it is a boys' choir comprising students ages seven to 18 at the Catholic London Oratory School. The Schola Cantorum's core function is liturgical; it performs at Saturday evening masses weekly during the school year and at services on major feast days. Quite early in its existence, the Schola Cantorum found itself in demand for work on film soundtracks; it has been heard in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Phantom of the Opera (2004), and The Brothers Grimm (2005), among other films. The group made its recording debut in 2010 on the Regent label with an album of music by Roxanna Panufnik. The choir has expanded its touring program over the years. In 2013, the group sang High Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Two years later, the group toured Spain, performing Spanish Renaissance music at the cathedrals in Madrid, Segovia, and Toledo, among other venues. The Schola Cantorum sang mass at St. Mark's in Venice in 2016 and returned to Spain in 2017. Later that year, the group toured the U.S., appearing in Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. In 2019, the choir appeared at the canonization ceremony of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Rome. Its current director is Charles Cole. The London Oratory Schola Cantorum has also expanded its recording program. The group has also recorded for Warner Classics, Aim Higher, and Hyperion, where it released a pair of albums, Sacred Treasures of Spain and Sacred Treasures of Christmas, in 2020. In 2023, the group issued the album Sacred Treasures of Venice on Hyperion and toured Venetian venues in connection with the album.
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