St John’s College Choir Welcome
Choir Association
Newsletter: Easter Term 2014
Greetings from the Choir Association. We are delighted to welcome you to the Easter Term edition of our new termly Newsletter, which will update you with the latest Members’ and Choir news. If you are reading this issue online, you can click on the images and text written in bold, which contain links to further information.
The Gentlemen of St John’s: Sister Ensembles The Gentlemen of St John’s (known as the Gents) are an independent close harmony group made up of the Choral Scholars and Organ Scholars of St John’s College, Cambridge. The ensemble has enjoyed a remarkably busy schedule of concerts and recordings for over forty years. Since the founding of the Gents in 1973, there have been a number of sister ensembles have been established for former Choral Scholars that are no longer studying at St John’s, such as Counterpoint and the Gentlemen of London (formed in 2010).
Counterpoint was a close harmony group created in 1973, and consisted of
altos Andrew Downes and Philip Griffiths, tenors John Tudhope and Granville Walker, and basses Anthony Edwards and Christopher Dean. The ensemble performed at many prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and also made a recording for the Südwest Rundfunk in Stuttgart. At a later stage Chris Royall joined the group in place of Andrew Downes, who left the ensemble to become Head of Composition and Creative Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire. Philip Griffiths became an architect, and recently retired to live in Umbria. Chris Royall was a Lay Clerk at St Paul’s Cathedral, and still sings for The Sixteen. John Granville Walker is Chorus Master at the Dortmund Opera. John Tudhope worked as a session singer for a decade after the leaving the group and is now the Head of Science at TASIS, an American international school in Surrey. Anthony Edwards became a lawyer, working in Dubai, Christopher Dean was a History teacher and House Master at St Paul’s School, and recently retired. Like the Gents, Counterpoint performed repertoire, from early sacred music to folksongs and close-harmony arrangements, giving over 100 performances in schools, music societies and National Trust properties until December 1985.