Join us as we celebrate works from the finest English Choral traditions, both sacred and secular.  

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The roots of the Anglican Choral Tradition predate the formation of the Anglican Church itself. St Sylvester, who was Pope from 314 to 336, founded a school of song in Rome to promote singing technique and learning of the repertoire of plainsong church music. Of course the Anglican Church itself was not founded until the middle of the 16th Century, but the following period of alternating puritanical and romanizing had a more severe effect on music in English churches, almost wiping it out entirely for a while.

This enabled choral music in Anglican worship to develop a flavor all of its own as it recovered from the brink of extinction. The relative scarcity of organs as a result of puritanical influences made a deep impact,  forcing choirs to compensate for the lack of instrumental accompaniment. Even today a choir's duties include supporting the congregational singing, and the Anglican psalm chants can stand alone harmonically without accompaniment. This disruption, along with the time it took for organs to be rebuilt, is probably the most significant factor in the early development of the tradition.

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​Our concert includes sacred and secular traditional English works by Harris, Gibbons, Parry, Greaves, Bennett, Weelkes, Howells, Stanford, and Elgar.