Cathedral Choir Launch 500th Year with London Performance to Capacity Crowd

The evening was a celebration of Christ Church’s rich musical legacy, which has its origins in the vision of our founder Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey stipulated that his new College would have sixteen choristers, supported in their singing by Clerks and educated by the institution. The ensemble was established in 1526, with Wolsey appointing one of the leading church musicians of his day, John Taverner, to direct them as the inaugural college Organist. The choir survived Wolsey’s fall in 1529, becoming part of King Henry VIII’s new unique dual foundation of College and Cathedral. They have inspired our congregations with music for daily worship here ever since, adding concert performances, recordings and tours to their repertoire in more recent years.

The concert appropriately began with music by Taverner written for performance in what is now the Cathedral in those earliest years. The programme also included works by one of his more recent successors as Organist, Simon Preston, as well as pieces by the celebrated composers and former members of House, William Walton and Peter Warlock. Two Magnificats commissioned by the Foundation by Giles Swayne and the Master of the King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen, brought the programme from Christ Church’s musical past to its flourishing present, with the latter piece receiving its London première following a debut at the Foundation’s 500th Anniversary celebration service in summer 2025.

Celebrations of the choir’s gala year will continue throughout 2026. A special concert to mark the anniversary will take place in Oxford on the 20th June, followed by a tour of the East Coast of the US in Autumn culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall. The choir will also record a new album and make a live appearance on BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong programme during the year.