St Albans Chamber Choir was founded in 1958 by John Rose and June Pepin (née Clark) with the aim of achieving the highest standards of performance in programmes of both familiar and less well-known music. John Rose conducted the Choir until 1965. As his successor, the Choir was very fortunate to appoint Richard Stangroom, whose musical knowledge and ability was to inspire the Choir for the next thirty years. It was Richard who took the Choir on its first visit to Worms-am-Rhein, St Albans’ German twin town, in 1969, and did much to foster the link that continues to flourish today.
Richard Stangroom retired in 1995, and it took a little while to find a musician of the right calibre to replace him. A worthy successor emerged in David Hansell, who continued to develop the Choir and introduce it to a wide-ranging and interesting repertoire. On David’s retirement in 2007, the Choir appointed John Gibbons as its musical director, an appointment which has taken the Choir in new directions and to new heights.
During its existence the Choir has commissioned works from, among others, Nicola le Fanu, John Joubert, John Tavener, and Malcolm Singer, whose Mask of Esther, a setting of an extended poem by Michelene Wandor, was given its world premiere in St Albans Abbey in May 2001 and its first London performance in January 2002. The Choir’s most recent commissions, O Nata Lux by Jonathan Rathbone and Martyr by Tarik O’Regan, were performed in the Choir’s fiftieth anniversary season (2008-2009).
In 2001 the Choir launched its first CD recording Christmas across the Centuries, a sequence of music featuring medieval and modern settings of Christmas texts. A second CD Mixing their Music, an anthology of works by Victoria, J S Bach, Mendelssohn, and Howells, among others, was recorded in July 2004. Both these commercial recordings, released to much critical acclaim, are currently available.