Choir of St Johns College, Cambridge & Christopher Gray
Biographie Choir of St Johns College, Cambridge & Christopher Gray
The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world, known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its distinctive rich, warm sound, its expressive interpretations and its breadth of repertoire. Alongside these musical characteristics, the Choir is particularly proud of its happy, relaxed and mutually supportive atmosphere. The Choir is directed by Christopher Gray who follows a long line of eminent musicians including, most recently, George Guest, Christopher Robinson, David Hill, and Andrew Nethsingha.
The Choir is made up of boy and girl Choristers who are educated at St John’s College School and altos, tenors, and basses who are mostly members of St John’s and other colleges that make up the University of Cambridge. The Choir’s primary purpose is to enhance the liturgy and worship at seven services each week during term time in the College’s beautiful Gilbert Scott Chapel. The group has a vast repertoire spanning over 500 years, with a special interest in championing new music. In recent decades, there have been commissions from most of the UK’s leading composers of choral music, as well as from numerous early-career artists in Cambridge and elsewhere. The Choir also enjoys joining the period instrument ensemble St John’s Sinfonia to perform Bach cantatas in a liturgical setting each term. There are regular tours across Europe, Asia, and North America, performing in some of the world’s most famous concert venues and cathedrals. Recent tour destinations have included The Netherlands, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Singapore, and the United States. At home in the UK, the Choir has performed in concert venues including Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Royal Albert Hall, St John's Smith Square, and Royal Festival Hall.
In May 2016 the College launched its ‘St John’s Cambridge’ recording label in conjunction with Signum Classics. Since then, 18 Choir albums have been released, including single-composer albums of music by Jonathan Harvey (BBC Music Magazine Award winner), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Michael Finnissy, two of which were shortlisted for Gramophone Awards. In addition to these albums, there have been four ‘Magnificat’ albums of varied Evensong Canticles, an anthem compilation Locus Iste, masses by Poulenc and Kodály, a live anthology The Tree, a Psalms collection, and seasonal albums for Advent, Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Eastertide.
Webcasts of services are available at www.sjcchoir.co.uk and there are live-streamed video broadcasts of Chapel services on Facebook, in association with Classic FM, as well as substantial content on YouTube and Instagram.
Christopher Gray
has been Director of Music at St John’s College since April 2023. With responsibilities focusing on the College’s celebrated Choir and organ, he works with the Choristers, Choral Scholars, Choral Graduates, and Organ Scholars to provide music that enhances the liturgy of the Chapel, upholding a tradition that dates from the 1670s.
After early musical education in his hometown of Bangor, Northern Ireland, Christopher became Assistant Organist at St George’s Parish Church, Belfast. At the age of 18 he moved to England to take up the organ scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read music. A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Christopher studied the organ with David Sanger and Nicolas Kynaston at Cambridge. He was subsequently taught by Margaret Phillips at the Royal College of Music, where he was a postgraduate student and a prize-winner. During this time, he also held the organ scholarship at Guildford Cathedral.
In 2000 Christopher was appointed Assistant Director of Music at Truro Cathedral, working closely with Andrew Nethsingha and then Robert Sharpe. In 2008 he became Director of Music, taking on responsibility for the cathedral choir and its seven sung services each week, as well as the Father Willis organ. As Musical Director of Three Spires Singers and Orchestra he conducted most of the large-scale choral-orchestral repertoire.
During his first two years at St John’s, Christopher has directed the Choir on broadcasts including the Advent Carol Service, and on tours to Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and the USA. He has worked with composers on seven new works for the Choir, as well as collaborations with The Gesualdo Six and the Academy of Ancient Music.
