St Albans Cathedral Choirs

The ancient Benedictine monastery at St Albans had a distinguished musical history before 1539 (when the abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII). Being the premier monastery in the land, the abbot was able to force boys from all over the country to join the choir. When the abbey church became a cathedral in 1877 a boys choir was again formed after 238 years but, like today, comprised local schoolboys who committed to sing services and attend rehearsal every day of the week, except one, during school-term time. Unlike the ancient English cathedrals there is no residential choir school so the boys rehearse before and after normal school, singing Choral Evensong on three weekdays, with three choral services on Saturday and Sunday. Under their current director, Andrew Lucas, the choir has toured Sweden and Rome, performed at the International Organ Festival in Haarlem, Netherlands and the Thomas à Becket Festival at Angers Cathedral, France, and they undertook a very successful tour of the United States in October 2006. The choir also plays host to two other cathedral choirs in the biennial St Albans International Organ Festival’s Three Choirs Concert. The choir has made many commercial recordings over the last three decades, including in recent years discs of music by Stanford (Priory Records) Christmas Music and a disc of German Romantic Choral and Organ music (Lammas). This is the choir’s second disc for Naxos, following their critically acclaimed recording of John Rutter’s Gloria and Magnificat (8.572653).