“The choir had a wonderfully vibrant choral sound, and contributed in the worshiping life of the cathedral to the full, with imaginative, challenging and appropriate music choices for the season of Easter, and moreover, it was executed with excellence.”
– Master of Music, Brecon Cathedral
Imperial College Chamber Choir is the flagship choir of Imperial College, based in South Kensington, London.
Originally founded in 1997 by Therees Hibbard as part of Imperial College Choir, the Chamber Choir became a separate and established ensemble in 2007 under the leadership of Jessica Gillingwater. The choir subsequently evolved under the directorship of William Glendinning from 2011-2018, which saw the introduction of regular concert and evensong cycles, tours, and more prestigious recognition. Today, the choir is an auditioned ensemble of circa 25 voices and has been conducted by Jack Apperley since September 2018.
The Chamber Choir has a colourful musical and social calendar. Rehearsals take place on Tuesday evenings, following which we are keen frequenters of the Union Bar. We are one of London’s finest university choirs that performs frequently in the capital, across the UK and internationally. Notable venues include Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Sherborne Abbey, Milan Duomo, Porto Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral, Brecon Cathedral, St Edmundsbury Cathedral and St Martin in the Fields.
We present several concerts per term and sing fortnightly Wednesday evensongs at Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road. We regularly undertake various external projects such as weddings, recordings, DofE awards ceremonies, church services and gallery recitals at local museums.
Taking our music outside of college is very important to us, and we go on a week-long Easter tour, a week-long summer tour, and several weekends away throughout the year. Our summer tours are a highlight of the year, both musically and socially. Recent tours have included Brittany, France (2016), Lake Garda, Italy (2016), The Highlands, Scotland (2017), Porto, Portugal (2017), Brecon Beacons, Wales (2018), Ljubljana, Slovenia (2018), and most recently Florence, Italy (2022); singing high-calibre choral music in and around their most famous venues.
Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, during Spring Tour 2019
The Chamber Choir is generously supported by the Blyth Centre for Music and Arts at Imperial, directed by Oliver Gooch.
Click here to subscribe to our public mailing list.
