Hear the Choir
You can hear the Choir live by coming to concerts and services, by listening to them on TV and radio or by listening online. Here are links to pages where you can find more information:
- Chapel services. The Choir sing Evensong most evenings of the week during term time, which you are welcome to attend.
- Choir concerts and tours. The concerts that the Choir sing in at the College, around the UK and in tours around the world.
- Easter at King's. The Easter Festival is a series of concerts and services held each Easter, which the Choir play a key role in.
- A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The famous Christmas service, first broadcast in 1928 and listened to by millions around the world. There is also a different service, Carols from King's, which is recorded for television and broadcast by BBC2 on Christmas Eve.
- Recordings (see below). The latest CDs and DVDs, with extracts you can listen to and view online.
Latest CDs and DVDs from the Choir
A Year at King's
A Year at King's and it is a musical tour of the ecclesiastical year as sung in the Chapel. The ancient and modern settings on the album showcase the vast range of music that the Choir performs. The music reflects Christ’s birth, death and resurrection through the festivals of Advent, Christmas, Candlemas, Lent, Easter and Ascension.
The recording includes such favourites as Allegri’s Miserere and Barber’s Agnus Dei, as well as the first recording of Tavener’s Away in a Manger, written for the Christmas Eve service, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, in 2004.
The rest of the CD includes works drawn from 600 years of musical history, works by Palestrina, Pärt and Poulenc, Lassus, Holst and Peter Philips. The disc is rounded off with a spectacular performance of Tallis’s Spem in alium. The Choir is conducted by the Director of Music at King's, Stephen Cleobury.
Listen to an extract from the CD: Miserere by Allegri.
"This album...reveals an ensemble on fine form" - ClassicFM 
"Firmly recommendable" - BBC Music Magazine 
"..the performances...are highly proficient, taking easily in their stride the most elaborate polyphony" - Gramophone
The CD was released on 7 June 2010 by EMI.
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
EMI have released a live recording of the 2008 A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. This double CD, released 2 November 2009, brings you the quintessential sound of Christmas.
The recording includes both traditional and modern carols. Some of the traditional carols are well known (O Come, All Ye Faithful; God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen; Hark! The Herald-Angels Sing), whilst others are less so (Angels from the Realms of Glory; Infant Holy, Infant Lowly; A Spotless Rose). Modern carols include Illuminare Jerusalem by Judith Weir (1985), What Sweeter Music by John Rutter (1987) and Mary, commissioned from Dominic Muldowney for the 2008 service.
Listen to an extract from the CD: Glory, alleluia to the Christ Child! by Alan Bullard.
The 2008 Festival marked the 80th anniversary of its first BBC broadcast in 1928 and the start of a year-long celebration of the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University.
England, My England
There is no more quintessentially English sound than that of the Choir of King’s College, and the beauty of its unaccompanied voices can now be experienced through the new album, England my England, released by EMI Classics on 6 July 2009.
The new album reached number one in the UK Classical Artist Album Chart in August 2009. It includes motets ancient and modern, well-known psalms and favourite hymns ('Jerusalem', 'Praise, my Soul, the King of Heaven'), and pieces made recogniseable through their association with key events in English history.
Handel's Messiah (CD and DVD)
A live recording of King's College choir conducted by Stephen Cleobury, from a recording made in King's College Chapel during Easter 2009 and broadcast in cinemas around the world. The Choir is accompanied by the Academy of Ancient Music and Ailish Tynan (soprano), Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor) and Matthew Rose (bass).
Listen to two excerpts from Messiah
'Surely, He hath borne our griefs'
'Hallelujah' chorus
Watch an excerpt from the DVD. Click on the player below (requires Flash player):
Christmas at King's
In December 2009 EMI released a new two-CD set of Christmas carols sung by the King's College Choir. The set is called Christmas at King's and contains 50 of the best and most-loved carols, including Oh come, all ye faithful, The Holly and the Ivy and Silent Night. It also contains lesser-known but beautiful carols from the medieval period to the present. The choir is conducted by Sir Philip Ledger, Sir David Willcocks and the current Director of Music Stephen Cleobury.
The CD also features a wealth of newly recorded material, including Ding Dong Merrily On High, In The Bleak Midwinter and See Amid The Winters Snow conducted by Stephen Cleobury, making this a truly unique collection. Click on the player to listen to See amid the winter's snow from the CD (requires Flash Player):
The Choir - Boys Don't Sing
The BBC TV programme The Choir - Boys Don't Sing included footage of the Choir. Choirmaster Gareth Malone makes a choir at a boys' school to take to the Royal Albert Hall. The final stages of preparation include a masterclass at King's College. Copyright 2008 Twenty Twenty Television: used by King's College with explicit permission from the publisher.
I Heard a Voice
This 2007 disc features a stunning selection of Anthems from the Tudor Times - featuring some of the Period's most prestigious composer's of such music. The disc includes a "This is the record of John" by Orlando Gibbons - this must have been one of the most popular Anthems of this era judging by the number of Manuscripts that contain it. Orlando Gibbons began his association with Kings College, Cambridge as a chorister under the direction of his eldest brother from 1596 to 1598.
There are two exuberant versions of Hosanna to the Son of David by Thomas Weelkes and Orlando Gibbons and a splendid version of "Alleluia, I heard a voice" by Weelkes.
