About the Choir

The Choir in the stalls

Although Christ Church Cathedral Choir is 500 years old, it is justly famous for the youthfulness of its sound and its daring and adventurous musical programming. Unique in the world as both Cathedral and College choir, the intimate acoustic of its musical home, Oxford's 12th-century Cathedral, has given it a relationship with early sacred music and the rhythm and vigour of contemporary idioms which is second to none.

There has been a choir at Christ Church since 1526 when John Taverner became Organist and Master of the Choristers. The statutes of Cardinal Wolsey's magnificent college, which he called "Cardinal College", envisaged thirty singing priests and twenty clerks, in addition to sixteen choristers. Before the College could be completed Wolsey fell from favour and died in 1530. Henry VIII's new foundation uniting the See of Oxford with the College, was now called Christ Church, and became the Cathedral Church of the diocese. Ever since the appointment of John Taverner as the first director of music a succession of fine musicians have been associated with this place, among them Crotch and Ouseley in the nineteenth century and Harris and Walton in the twentieth.

The present choir consists of sixteen boy choristers and twelve men, of whom six are professional Lay Clerks, whilst the remainder are undergraduates (Academical Clerks) at Christ Church, reading for degrees in a wide variety of subjects. Under its present director Stephen Darlington, the choir has maintained a position as one of the top Cathedral choirs in the country achieving particular recognition for music of the 16th and 20th centuries. Apart from Cathedral services, the choir has a busy programme of concerts and recording both in the UK and abroad. This has led to the choir's recognition throughout the world for its excellence. It has often performed in London, appearing at the Proms, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and St. John's Smith Square as well as the London Palladium. There have been extensive tours throughout Europe (East and West), to America (North and South), and Australia.

Christ Church Cathedral

The choir has a strong history of recording, involving collaboration with many orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, English String Orchestra, Hanover Band, English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music and London Musici. Discs include music by Aston and Ashwell, Byrd, De Monte, Esteves, Haydn, Lassus, Martin, Palestrina, Poulenc, Purcell, Pygott, Sheppard, Taverner, Vaughan Williams, Victoria, Vivaldi and Weelkes, as well as important twentieth-century composers such as Britten, Goodall, Janacek, Matthias, Tavener, Tippett and Walton. Several of these CDs have won awards: Vaughan Williams, An Oxford Elegy was nominated for a Grammy Award. Palestrina, Missa Dum Complerentur, Victoria Missa Dum Complerentur, Tippett and Walton Choral Works have also won prestigious awards. Recent releases, Haydn, Stabat Mater and De Monte, Masses and Motets have received Gramophone magazine recommendations.  The choir's latest recording, Winter Lullabies, is a collaboration between composer Howard Goodall, harpist Catrin Finch and the Cathedral choristers.

The choir broadcasts regularly on television, and can be heard singing the theme tunes for 'Mr. Bean' and 'The Vicar of Dibley'. In 1999 it was the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary in which it was hailed as "one of the finest choirs on Earth". The film was nominated at the prestigious Montreux TV Festival in the the Arts Programme category - and has since been seen throughout the world. The choir has also featured on Howard Goodall's BAFTA award-winning series 'Big Bangs' has been seen in two programmes in his series 'Great dates' for Channel Four.