Cambridge University Chamber Choir

Composed of elite singers within the Cambridge University community, the Cambridge University Chamber Choir is the flagship choral ensemble of the Cambridge University Musical Society. The group performs material, much of it secular, that would not normally be attempted by the university's larger student groups. Groups of especially skilled singers have existed at Cambridge for some time; one such ancestor of the modern Cambridge University Chamber Choir performed the modern madrigal collection A Garland for the Queen during the coronation festivities for Elizabeth II in 1953. The Cambridge University Chamber Choir took its present form in 1969 when it was founded by musicologist and conductor Richard Marlow. He remained its artistic director until 1982, when Cambridge became coeducational, and he took over its new mixed choir; the Chamber Choir is also now mixed-gender and includes university staff as well as students. A later director was Tim Brown, with whom the choir recorded A Garland for the Queen in 1991 for the Heritage label; this album was reissued in 2010. Early music pioneer Roger Norrington served as principal guest conductor for a time. The current director is Martin Ennis, who has also served as chair of the Cambridge music faculty; David Lowe and Nicholas Mulroy are associate conductors. The choir typically undertakes three or four concert projects annually. Admission to the choir is by audition; singers who are not already part of the Cambridge choral community may be required to bring a letter of reference from a choral director. In addition to performances at Cambridge, the choir has toured and appeared at events internationally, including the Yale International Choral Festival in the U.S. The Cambridge University Chamber Choir, with Brown as director, issued the album The Music of Christopher Tye on the Guild label in 1996. An album of Elgar part-songs under director Christopher Robinson appeared on Naxos in 2008, followed by English Choral Music in 2012; that album was a compilation of several earlier releases. The choir returned on Naxos in 2023 with the album Pavel Chesnokov: Sacred Choral Music.
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