After 80 years of singing in the city of St Albans, St Albans Choral Society has celebrated new beginnings by welcoming Charlie Perry as our new Music Director,. 

Our 2025 Autumn Concert offered a rich programme of music in the stunning acoustic of St Peter’s Church, St Albans. The centrepiece of the evening was John Rutter’s stunning ‘Requiem’, dedicated to his father. It contains some of Rutter’s most beautiful melodies as well as his most darkly dissonant harmonies. 

The evening’s other major work was a melting-pot of musical styles and influences: Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’ were written for an English choir by an American composer and are sung in Hebrew. The music itself started as sketches for his musical ‘West Side Story’, and you can hear the drama of gang warfare in the startling 2nd Movement, sitting in between the outer movements which epitomise the contrasts in this concert. 

Also from America, the choir performed ‘Hear My Prayer’ by African-American composer Moses Hogan, which takes it influence from the American Spiritual style. Additionally, the choir performed two of John Rutter’s most-loved motets: ‘The Lord Bless You and Keep’ you and ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’. The choir were joined by a chamber ensemble, organist Edward Kemp-Luck and versatile soprano soloist Freya Parry, who also sang  a prayer of a different kind: ‘Somewhere’ from the aforementioned West Side Story.