Crouch End Festival Chorus

Founded in 1984, Crouch End Festival Chorus has established a reputation as one of the world’s leading symphonic choirs, repeatedly commended for its communicative power and versatility. Under David Temple MBE, its conductor and co-founder, the choir gives concerts that illuminate the choral world with imaginative and bold programming, in which established choral works are mixed with commissions of great variety and innovation. The Chorus is much in demand among the top orchestras in the UK and performs regularly for the BBC, recently in John Adams’s Harmonium and Verdi’s Requiem at the BBC Proms, in 2023 and 2024 respectively. It has appeared in recent concert performances of Prokofiev’s Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution under Vladimir Ashkenazy and Berlioz’s Grande Messe des morts under François-Xavier Roth, among others. In constant demand for recording work and live promotions, the Chorus has worked with musicians from the rock and pop world and with television and film composers; recent highlights include recording the GRAMMY-nominated soundtrack for Rocketman and the music for the TV series Good Omens. It has also enjoyed regular collaborations with Sir Ray Davies, Ennio Morricone, Noel Gallagher and Hans Zimmer, all of whom are patrons of the choir. Recent recordings, conducted by David Temple, include the first in forty-five years of J.S. Bach’s St John Passion sung in English, which was released by Chandos Records in 2017 and continues to garner critical acclaim; the world-premiere recording of Hubert Parry’s oratorio Judith, released in March 2020 also on Chandos Records; the American composer Arnold Rosner’s Requiem – another world-premiere recording; and Britten’s Saint Nicolas with the BBC Concert Orchestra.