All Saints Parish Choir
The Parish Choir of All Saints Church, Fulham, sings for the 10.30am Eucharist and 6pm Choral Evensong Sunday services at the church. At these services it performs a wide range of music, both well-known cathedral-style repertoire and more unusual music – from striking South American baroque works to South African choral dances and new commissions by contemporary composers, including, recently, a new Jazz Mass setting by Iain Farrington, a Mass setting by Gabriel Jackson, an anthem by Richard Allain and many new works by members of the choir.
You can listen to recordings of our singing on our Soundcloud channel and view our current term's Music List.
Who's who
Director of Music: Jonathan Wikeley
Assistant Organists: Thomas Dilley
Director of JASS: Sam Poppleton
Soprano Choral Scholar: Freya Firth-Robson
Alto Choral Scholar: Kit Thickett
Tenor Scholar: Hugh Kaliski
Bass Scholar: Ben Dennes
The choir is a semi-professional ensemble of chamber-choir proportions (currently 12, 6, 7, 7) that performs an exciting and eclectic range of music to a very high standard. Many members of the choir are young professionals who have enjoyed singing in college and university choirs and who wish to keep singing to a similar standard while working or studying in London. There are four paid choral scholars, usually one per part, who sing with the choir and also as a quartet at certain services. At Christmas, Easter and other significant festivals the choir and organ are sometimes joined by a consort of professional instrumentalists.
Beyond the regular service schedule, the choir tours regularly to cathedrals in the UK (in recent years York, Southwell, Salisbury, Ely, Lincoln, Bury St Edmunds, Wells, Worcester, Norwich, Truro and St David’s) and abroad (Cologne, Bonn, northern France and southern Ireland). Other highlights include a termly ‘Three Choirs Evensong’ series, a rotating fixture between All Saints; St Luke’s, Chelsea; and St Matthew’s, Kensington. The three choirs regularly put on concerts together, including concerts at the Clifton Festival, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, and J.S. Bach’s St John Passion at All Saints with choral scholars singing the solo arias. Last year, the choir performed Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Nisi Dominus with a period instrument ensemble, again with choral scholars singing the solo arias.
All Saints Choir organises regular workshops, most recently an early workshop with Stile Antico, and with Andrew Nethsingha (Westminster Abbey), David Hill (BBC Singers, Bach Choir), Martin Neary (Westminster Abbey) and Stephen Jackson. This summer the choir will take part in a workshop with Bob Chilcott. The choir has performed at the London International Festival of Early Music, the London Brandenburg Festival, with a concert of Passiontide music at Temple Church, and concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields.
The choir has sung for a number of broadcasts, singing live on BBC1 for the Christmas Day Eucharist, and live on Radio 4 for the Palm Sunday ‘Sunday Worship’ programme.
All Saints choir is a friendly and sociable group and we have a busy social schedule of pub-going, parties and other events. Highlights of the year include the Vicar’s garden party, choir trips away to sing and relax, and the annual watching of the Boat Race start from the church tower.
Joining the choir
The director of music, Jonathan Wikeley, is always keen to hear from interested singers at any time of year. Further information about joining the choir.
Auditions
Singers will be asked to perform a piece they know well (ideally bringing along an extra score for the accompanist), and sightread a few extracts from the choral repertoire. The director of music is always happy to chat informally about any aspects of the choir beforehand.
Application for choral scholarships
Rehearsal schedule
The normal weekly commitments are as follows:
Wednesday: Rehearsal 8–9.30pm
Sunday: Rehearsal 9.45–10.20am
Eucharist 10.30–11.45am
Rehearsal 5–5.50pm
Choral Evensong 6–7.15pm
Within this schedule, there are various breaks. There is one lower voices and one upper voices Sunday each term, and on occasions the choral scholars will sing services on their own.
All Saints is an inclusive parish church, worshipping in the catholic tradition of the Church of England, that welcomes anyone, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, physical ability or ethnic background.
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