Review of 2025-26

Another busy year has seen the Schola Cantorum continue its programme of liturgy, concerts and professional engagements. Alongside its regular commitment to the School's liturgies, the choir has travelled abroad on two occasions and performed in London and further afield in a wide variety of settings. The principal work of the Schola Cantorum remains the provision of music for the School's liturgical life. Throughout the year, the choir has sung at the weekly Wednesday morning Mass, on major feasts of the Church's year, most notably the Ascension, and at whole-school occasions including the annual Carol Service. The choir's close relationship with Westminster Cathedral has also continued. In addition to singing for the School's Foundation Day Mass in September, the Schola returned on three further occasions during the year to sing the Cathedral's Saturday Vigil Mass.

Beyond its liturgical commitments, the Schola was involved in a varied programme of concerts and professional engagements. Among the most memorable were four performances at the Royal Albert Hall in October with the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. Singing for an audience of more than 20,000 across the four nights, this was a very exciting week. And it is not not every day that the Schola Cantorum finds itself mentioned in the pages of rock magazine NME! The association with Sigur Rós proved fruitful later in the year when the band invited the choir to join them again for the concert celebrating the 100th birthday of Sir David Attenborough. The event was broadcast live on BBC One and given in the presence of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

The Michaelmas Term saw the choir sing a concert at St John The Baptist, Holland Road, allowing the new boys their first chance to perform with the choir. Christmas was, as ever, a busy time. Alongside the School's own Advent and Christmas celebrations, the boys sang at a wide variety of events across London, including a welcome return to The Dorchester after a two-year absence, as well as visits to Brown's Hotel and a number of other seasonal engagements. Christmas also brought the choir's annual performances of Handel's Messiah, a work for which the boys have a particular affection. This year it was performed twice: first at Our Lady of Victories, Kensington, and then at Douai Abbey in Berkshire.

At the end of January, the Schola spent three days recording a new Christmas CD, the choir's first collection of Christmas music for more than twenty years. The recording will be released by the Ad Fontes label at Buckfast Abbey in time for Christmas this year. It seeks to capture something of the atmosphere of the Vaughan Carol Service and includes Onyx Brass in the congregational carols, as well as two Old Vaughanians who returned to sing solo roles.

In February the Schola travelled to Trondheim at the invitation of Nidarosdomens Guttekor, the boys choir of Nidaros Cathedral. During three days in Norway the Schola gave a concert in what is the world's most northerly Gothic cathedral and also sang at St Olav's Catholic Cathedral, the seat of Bishop Erik Varden, who is widely regarded as one of the Church's leading contemporary theologians. Bishop Erik was unable to be with us as he was in Rome preaching the Lenten Retreat to Pope Leo and the Roman Curia. The friendship quickly became reciprocal when, at the end of June, the Nidarosdomens Guttekor visited England as part of its UK tour. We welcomed them to Our Lady of Victories, Kensington, for a joint concert with the Schola.

We were also invited to join the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Stravinsky's Perséphone at the Barbican in February. The invitation followed the choir's involvement with the Orchestra at the previous summer's BBC Proms, when Malakai Bayoh and Carlos Gonzalez Napoles stepped in at short notice to sing the treble solo roles in Mahler's Das klagende Lied. Perséphone is a demanding work for children's chorus, not least because of its French text, and many hours were spent in the preparation of this performance, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

The Schola's long-standing relationship with the Royal Opera House continued, with the boys appearing in the new production of Puccini's Tosca, conducted by Jakub Hrůša. They also contributed to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama's production of Britten's Owen Wingrave, pre-recording the choral parts for use in performance.

The choir also spent time in the recording studio on a number of other musical projects during the year, singing for a variety of pop, crossover and other commercial projects.

Just after Easter, the Schola gave a concert at St John's Smith Square, where we were joined by the soprano Simona Mihai. Simona has sung with the boys in recent Royal Opera House productions of La bohème and very generously agreed to appear with them in a concert performance of Haydn's Nelson Mass. This was a splendid evening with strong singing from the Schola and also a memorable performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, with Lower Sixth pupil James Cummings as soloist.

The year concluded with a five-day tour to Spain. The choir began in Barcelona, singing for Mass and giving a concert in the crypt of the Basílica de la Sagrada Família, before travelling to Montserrat Abbey to sing the daily Salve. There is something very special about Montserrat and it was inspiring to return there with the Schola nearly twenty years on from our last visit in 2007. From there the tour continued to Zaragoza, where the choir sang for Mass and gave a concert at the Church of Santa Engracia, and then to Huesca for a final concert in the Cathedral. The boys also had time to visit the cities in which they were singing and to experience something of the religious and cultural life of northern Spain, not to forget a somewhat eventful evening at a Bowling alley!

Looking back over another busy year, I am struck not so much by the number of concerts or the miles travelled, but by the commitment shown by the boys week after week. Whether singing at a Wednesday morning Mass, recording in the studio, appearing alongside professional musicians or touring abroad, they have approached every occasion with generosity, discipline and a real sense of purpose. We have been blessed this year with a particularly committed group of Upper Sixth students, and I wish Laurence, Victor, Ben J, Rowan, Ben Y and Aquino every happiness and success as they leave the School. I hope that singing will continue to play an important part in their lives, and I am sure that it will.

My sincere thanks go to all the boys, to their families for the unfailing support they continue to give, to my colleagues in the Music Department and to the clergy and staff of the School for their encouragement throughout the year. I am also grateful to the many friends of the Schola, whose generosity and goodwill continue to make so much of its work possible.