Bennett, R R: I saw three ships

The King’s School has its roots in the sixth century and its pupils live and work within the inspirational and ancient Precincts of Canterbury Cathedral and the grounds of St Augustine’s Abbey. Music has played a central role in the school’s life from its monastic foundations. The Crypt Choir, under the direction of Howard Ionascu, is the school’s senior choir. Its primary purpose is to provide music for weekly School services in Canterbury Cathedral, where the King’s School is part of the Foundation.

The choir also performs at outside venues, most recently St Paul’s, Knightsbridge, The Temple Church, St John’s, Smith Square and Westminster Abbey. It has toured extensively, including a number of European countries, New York, Boston, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong. The Choir reached the final stage of the 2005 BBC Choir of the Year at the Lowry Centre in Salford. In July of that year the Choir was invited to perform Tallis’ Spem in alium alongside The Sixteen and Harry Christophers in Canterbury Cathedral. The Choir has been particularly active in performing contemporary music.

It has performed in the Sounds New Festivals, featuring works by James Macmillan, Paul Patterson and Gabriel Jackson. In December 2005 it gave the first performance of a commission by Howard Goodall, Of the dark past, in Canterbury Cathedral.

The Gloucester Cathedral Choir follow their imaginative and acclaimed first release on AVIE, In The Beginning (AV 2072) with a spirited holiday album of traditional and contemporary carols, including famous arrangements by Sir David Willcocks and Sir Philip Ledger, as well as the newly commissioned title track from Richard Rodney Bennett.

As the successor to the boys and monks of the Benedictine Abbey, The Gloucester Cathedral Choir boasts a tradition tracing back over 900 years. Henry VIII established their current incarnation, along with the Church of England, in 1539. Andrew Nethsingha, the choir’s Music Director at the time of this recording, was a chorister at Exeter Cathedral, where his father, the distinguished Sri Lankan-born English church musician Lucian Nethsingha, was director of music for 26 years. He studied at the Royal College of Music where he was awarded seven prizes and was the youngest cathedral organist in Britain when appointed to Truro Cathedral in 1994. In addition to singing in six services every week, the Gloucester Cathedral Choir is heard annually at the Three Choirs Festival, and regularly at the Cheltenham International Festival and on BBC radio and television broadcasts.