St Albans Cathedral Choirs

The St. Albans Cathedral Choir is an all-male ensemble with a history stretching back to medieval times. The group sings daily at St. Albans Cathedral. Choral singing at St. Albans Cathedral goes back to the cathedral's early history as an abbey; a "Master of the Music" named Adam was recorded in church chronicles as early as 1302. Among the holders of that position was the composer Robert Fayrfax (1464-1521). Since 1998, the Master of the Music has been Andrew Lucas; there is also an Assistant Master of the Music, Tom Winpenny. The choir consists of 20 to 26 boys, ages eight to 14, who rehearse six times weekly and sing five daily services, even though St. Albans has no choir school and the membership is drawn from singers at local schools. For larger weekend services, the choir is joined by up to 12 adult male Lay Clerks, and for tours, recordings, and performances of larger works, the group may team with the St. Albans Cathedral Girls Choir and with the Abbey Choir, a by-invitation ensemble made up of former choristers at the Cathedral. Among the former members of the St. Albans Cathedral Choir is Rod Argent, founding member of the rock group The Zombies and the composer of She's Not There and Time of the Season. In 1991, the St. Albans Cathedral Choir appeared on the album Christmas Carol by flutist James Galway, and the following year, the choir sang on conductor Franz Welser-Möst's recording of Orff's Carmina Burana on the EMI label. In 2001, the choir recorded the Bible Songs of Charles Villiers Stanford for the Priory Records label. In addition to performances at St. Albans, the choir has appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Symphony Hall in Birmingham, has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC One, and has toured Italy, Spain, Germany, and Sweden; the group embarks on tours every other year. The St. Albans Cathedral Choir has premiered new music by Alec Roth and Joanna Marsh. In the 2003 film Johnny English, starring Rowan Atkinson and John Malkovich, the choir stood in for the Westminster Abbey Choir during a coronation scene. The group released several albums on the Naxos label in the 2010s, including one of John Rutter's Psalmfest (2016). In 2023, the choir moved to the First Hand Records label for the album Bruckner: Motets, which also included the St. Albans Cathedral Girls Choir.
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