Winchester College Chapel Choir

Winchester College Chapel Choir is an historic British boys choir that sings in the Chapel of Winchester College. It contains 16 boys under age 13, known as quiristers, and older pupils from Winchester College. The choir has performed on the radio and has made multiple recordings. Members of the choir have won the BBC Young Chorister of the Year competition three times.

History

Pupils at Winchester College include 16 Quiristers, 70 Scholars, and (fee-paying) Commoners.

When William of Wykeham founded Winchester College in 1382, he provided for 16 boys under age 13 to sing in the choir. These young boys are called Quiristers, or Qs. The Quiristers are educated at The Pilgrims' School, the school for Winchester Cathedral's choir. The Quiristers School used to be taught separately, but this became uneconomic, and in 1966 teaching was merged with that of the rest of The Pilgrim's School. In 2025, the Pilgrims' School was merged with Winchester College, becoming its preparatory school.

Winchester College has maintained the Quiristers since its foundation in the 14th century. Standards had fallen by the mid-19th century, at which time no training was provided to the Quiristers, who were picked not for musical skill but for "good behaviour and deserving conduct". In 1867, it was proposed to abolish the Quiristers in favour of a school choir, but nothing came of it. They were made to serve in the College dining hall, dressed in knee-breeches, Eton collars, Norfolk jackets, and aprons.

The Quiristers' status improved in the 20th century: from 1936, they no longer had to work as servants in the dining hall in College. From 1945 they began to be admitted to Winchester College as Commoners or (from 1948) as scholars in increasing numbers, to the extent that a former headmaster, James Sabben-Clare, could comment in 1981 that there was "a steady stream of talent into [Winchester College] from the Quiristers", and that it was "more normal than not" for Quiristers to move up into the school. As of 2026, Quiristers receive a 40% discount on The Pilgrims' School boarding fees; all get free tuition in musical instruments and voice training, and some receive additional bursary funding. The College states that most of them "will achieve a Winchester College music award."

The lower voice parts of Chapel Choir are sung by pupils of Winchester College.

The choir has performed Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols on BBC Radio 4, 'Choral Evensong' on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM's annual Christmas concert.

Members of the choir have won the BBC Young Chorister of the Year competition three times.

Recordings

Directors

The Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College is Dónal McCann. Previous directors include Howard Ionascu (2018–2024), David Hurley (2017–2018, and formerly a choral scholar), Malcolm Archer (2007–2017), Christopher Tolley (1992–2007), Julian Smith (1977–1992), and Raymond Humphrey (1970–1977, who served as cathedral organist for 75 years).

Cathedral musicians and composers have served as College Organists and Masters of Music over the centuries. These include Thomas Weelkes, Jeremiah Clarke, Samuel Sebastian Wesley and George Dyson.

References

  1. ↑ "Cathedral Close". Winchester Cathedral. Archived from the original on 1 May 2015.
  2. ↑ "History of the School | The Pilgrims' School". www.thepilgrims-school.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "Merger of The Pilgrims' School with Winchester College". The Pilgrims' School. 23 April 2025.
  4. ↑ Green, Adrian (30 April 2018). "Winchester College Chapel Choir". Convivium Records.
  5. ↑ Sabben-Clare 1981, pp. 2–4.
  6. 1 2 Sabben-Clare 1981, p. 118.
  7. ↑ Sabben-Clare 1981, p. 123.
  8. 1 2 Sabben-Clare 1981, p. 121.
  9. ↑ Sabben-Clare 1981, p. 116.
  10. ↑ "Quiristers: Education". Winchester College. Retrieved 29 April 2026.
  11. ↑ "Winchester College Chapel Choir". The Pilgrims School. Retrieved 29 April 2026.
  12. ↑ Abbasi, Awab (26 May 2022). "Boys being encouraged to join Winchester College choir". Vol. Hampshire Chronicle. The Quiristers have recently done recordings for several radio channels and have been busying themselves performing for the UK. Their recorded performance includes Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols" on BBC Radio 4, "Choral Evensong" on BBC Radio 3, the annual Christmas concert on Classic FM, and a Christmas CD called "A Winter's Night" (Signum Records).
  13. ↑ Whitehead, Steven (1 October 2014). "Charles Villiers Stanford: Choral Music – Review by Cross Rhythms". Convivium Records. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  14. ↑ "Dónal McCann". www.winchestercollege.org. Retrieved 2 May 2025.
  15. ↑ "New Christmas Recording with Winchester College Chapel Choir". Onyx Brass. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
  16. ↑ "The King's Singers' David Hurley: Final Performance with the Choir". www.thetabernaclechoir.org. Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  17. ↑ Deeks, Steve (9 August 2022). "Organist who once performed for Queen and went to same college as Rishi Sunak has been struck off from teaching over historical sexual behaviour with pupil". The News, Portsmouth.
  18. ↑ "Christopher Tolley". Naxos Records. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  19. ↑ "Julian Smith, baritone singer who became director of Chapel Music and the Quiristers of Winchester College – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 8 April 2019.
  20. ↑ "Winchester organists celebrate centenary". Hampshire Chronicle. 11 December 2007. A distinguished series of musicians at Winchester College spans from Dr Edward Sweeting (who taught Sir Thomas Beecham!) in 1907 to Malcolm Archer appointed in 2007, and has included Sir George Dyson, John Sowerbutts, Henry Havergal, Sydney Watson, Christopher Cowan and Raymond Humphrey (who has achieved the landmark of 75 years as an organist).
  21. ↑ "The Winchester Tradition - Regent REGCD331 [JS]: Classical Music Reviews - September 2010 MusicWeb-International". www.musicweb-international.com.

Sources