The Canonbury Chamber Choir was founded in 1978 by Lawrence Watts to perform late Renaissance and Baroque music. Anthony Milledge became director in 1980, widening the repertoire to include twentieth century music.

Photograph by: Robert Pereira Hind.

Our concerts often include first performances of new works and new editions of early music, many researched by Anthony Milledge.

Recent concerts have included three of the Bach Masses, Handel's Jephtha and his rarely heard St John Passion, the Florentine Intermedi of 1589, and a program of newly published music by the Flemish composer Dyricke Gerarde. The twentieth century has been represented by works by Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, Veljo Tormis, Benjamin Britten and first performances of music by local composer Tony Noakes.

James Deveson, writing in Choir and Organ magazine, says of the Gerarde concert:

'This amateur choir appeared effortlessly to rise to the challenge of this unfamiliar and complex polyphony, giving a well balanced, sympathetic and musically authentic performance of all the items on the programme. Indeed such was the standard of performance that one could easily forget that this was a choir made up of amateurs, performing for, and communicating to the audience for their own enjoyment.'

We give six concerts a year, usually with the Holborne Players, professional musicians specialising in instruments and playing styles of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. All soloists are drawn from the choir, ensuring stylistically coherent performances. Information about vacancies and how to join us can be found at Choir Vacancies.