The Choir
'One of the world's most renowned choirs'
– Classic FM
The Queen’s College has a strong musical tradition, and the mixed-voiced chapel choir is recognised as one of the finest university choirs in the country.
The Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford was recently hailed as ‘one of the world’s most renowned choirs’ by Classic FM and the Director Owen Rees’s interpretations of choral music have been described as ‘revelatory and even visionary’ (BBC Music Magazine). The mixed-voice choir consists of thirty singers, including some twenty Choral Scholars who are students of the College, Choral Exhibitioners from other colleges, and two professional Lay Clerks.
‘An undoubted jewel in Britain’s choral scene’ (BBC Music Magazine), the Choir of The Queen’s College Oxford is among the finest and most active university choirs in the UK. Its extensive concert schedule involves appearances across the UK and abroad, including work with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. It regularly tours abroad, and concert tours have included Taiwan, China, the USA, Sri Lanka, Italy, Sardinia, Portugal, Spain, France, the Low Countries, Germany, and Sweden. The choir’s forthcoming engagements include a concert in the Festival de Gensac, France, and a recording of works by Kenneth Leighton, Rebecca Clarke, Harold Darke, and Gustav and Imogen Holst. The choir’s wide-ranging repertory includes a rich array of Renaissance and Baroque music and contemporary works. The group broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio, and during the academic year it provides the music for regular services in the splendid Baroque chapel of The Queen’s College. Queen’s Choir’s CD releases are on the Signum Classics label. Its albums have topped the Specialist Classical Chart on two occasions, and its most recent release – That Sweet City – was named as Critics’ Choice 2024 in Gramophone. Carols from Queen’s enjoyed nine weeks in the Specialist Classical Charts, was ‘Drive Featured Album of the Week’ on Classic FM, and was a Telegraph Christmas pick. A New Heaven (2017) and The House of the Mind (2018) both went straight to no. 1 in the Specialist Classical Chart in their first week of sales; BBC Music Magazine commented that A New Heaven shows ‘the singers at their radiant best’ and Choir and Organ described The House of the Mind as ‘a gem of a disc’. 2019 saw the release of a recording of music by the great Tudor composer John Taverner, which received a Diapason d’or and was described by Diapason as ‘a splendid triumph of English choral art at its best’. Queen’s Choir has also recorded for film at the famous Abbey Road Studios, and appears on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack of the Warner-Brothers film Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince. The choir’s TV work has included Lucy Worsley’s A Merry Tudor Christmas (BBC2) in 2019.
Press
“breathtakingly gorgeous sound”
“...an excellent disc: the singing is incredibly tight, in the manner to which it has become increasingly accustomed under its musical director, Owen Rees.”
“An absolutely superb performance…British university choral sound at its best.”
“The performance is excellent. The choir of Queen’s College…sing the work splendidly and with great assurance and commitment. The sound is fresh and clear, the choir achieving a satisfying blend and very good diction….the singers have clearly been trained very well by Owen Rees.”
“The choir produced an exquisitely pure sound…[Owen Rees] an impressive conductor.”
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