In addition to its primary task of leading chapel services, Clare College Choir gives frequent concerts, both in the United Kingdom and abroad. It tours throughout Western and Eastern Europe, the United States of America, Russia, and the Middle and Far East, frequently performs in Britain’s major concert halls with many leading British orchestras, and regularly contributes to the Choral Evensong broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. Under the direction of Timothy Brown it has become world-renowned for the range and for the breadth of its repertoire, including works with orchestra, and for the flexibility of its choral sound. Clare Choir became the first mixed-voice choir from Cambridge or Oxford to perform at the BBC Proms, singing Bach’s St John Passion, and made a further appearance at the Proms in a performance of Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with the Monteverdi Choir. It has sung under the direction of many leading conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Andrew Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, René Jacobs and Sir Roger Norrington. It has toured with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, appeared in the Innsbruck, Potsdam and Salzburg festivals, and performed at Spitalfields and most other leading United Kingdom concert venues. The choir’s discography stretches from Allegri to John Tavener. It regularly commissions new music, and has become particularly linked with the work of Tarik O’Regan, Giles Swayne, and Clare alumnus John Rutter.

Photo: Andrew Houston