Royal Holloway Choir

The Choir of Royal Holloway is considered to be one of the finest mixed-voice collegiate choirs in Britain. Their recordings on the Hyperion label have attracted top reviews from all major music publications. Equally at home on the concert platform, the choir gives 50-plus concerts a year with a particular specialism in music from the late renaissance and contemporary music, especially from the Baltic States. The choir also regularly collaborates with other ensembles such as the King’s Singers, London Mozart Players and Fretwork. Created at the time of the foundation of Royal Holloway in 1886, the choir was originally only for women’s voices. The mixed choir now comprises 24 Choral Scholars who undertake a busy schedule of weekly services, as well as concerts, international tours, recordings and broadcasts. In addition to these, Royal Holloway is also the only university that still maintains a tradition of daily sung morning services.
The choir has been fortunate to sing at a number of high-profile events including the 2014 Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall (live on BBC TV), an awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace and performing a new John Rutter commission for the Magna Carta 800th anniversary in front of HM The Queen, the Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury. The choir regularly sing at festivals, including at Presteigne in 2018. The choir also has a large discography, including 7 on the Hyperion Label. Their most recent (Ola Gjeilo: Winter Songs) was No. 1 in the UK and US classical chart, and forthcoming releases include music by Ben Parry, Joanna Marsh and James Francis Brown. Recent projects have included performances of Beethoven’s ‘Ninth Symphony’ with the Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Adès, a new recording of a recently rediscovered Mass by Pierre Villette in Paris, and future plans include tours of North America and southern France in 2020.