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Children are admitted to the choir from the age of seven. Men and women, boys and girls all sing together, with the exception of first Sundays in each month when the children sing on their own in the morning and adults at the evening service.

The choir’s primary role is to sing at Sunday morning Parish Eucharist services in St Barnabas Church. We lead the congregation in hymns and in the sung sections of the Communion service, and we have a wide repertoire of anthems. In addition to the traditional Anglican repertoire, these include several works written specially for us by composers such as Francis Jackson, John Casken, Paul Ayres, Simon Gottschalk and, most recently, Harry Bramma and Howard Skempton. We have a particular association with the music of Ian Hubbard, who has written numerous pieces for us, including the service setting used in St Barnabas most Sundays.

Choir practices take place on Friday evenings. The children rehearse from 6.15pm and are joined by the adult singers from 7.00pm. We aim to finish at around 8.00pm when the children have games and social activities and the adults may do a little more singing before sharing a glass of wine.

From time to time the Choir of St Barnabas gives public concerts and takes part in recordings and broadcasts. We also sing at weddings in St Barnabas and in Christ’s Chapel. We have made three CDs – Jubilate Deo; A Sure Foundation and Sing Nowell – and have plans to record a fourth in the near future. In 1999 the choir undertook a tour to Italy which included a performance of the Mass in G Minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams in the Duomo in Florence.

During the period immediately after the fire that destroyed the original parish church of St Barnabas, the choir played an important part in leading services in the Parish Hall. Head boy at the time was Gavin Moralee, who ironically had won the last ever Royal School of Church Music Choirboy of the Year competition just six weeks before the fire.

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