All Saints Parish: 500 Years of Choral Heritage
All Saints is the historic Parish Church of Kingston, founded in the 13th Century. It is a member of the Greater Churches Group. One of our greatest treasures is our historic cathedral-style choir, with documented roots as old as the building itself. The choir is a semi-professional choir – our trebles are drawn from many local schools and receive a generous honorarium and free singing lessons.
The choir is known nationally for the quality of its music making and sings an extensive repertoire. As well as contributing to the worship of the church, the choir has made broadcasts and recordings, has excellent connections with local schools and has regularly produced choral scholars at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
In addition to our own in house choirs, All Saints hosts regular sessions for several external choirs and orchestra’s who enjoy our wonderful acoustics and renowned Frobenius Organ. The Rock choir www.rockchoir.com and the Eclipse choir Eclipse Choir – Kingston Upon Thames Choir, South West London rehearse and perform concerts regularly.
The Main Choir and choral Scholarships
The All Saints Church Cathedral style choir has spaces in their treble line and children in years 4-7 (and onwards) are eligible to audition. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to join a prestigious choir offering a cathedral quality music repertoire with a fraction of the time commitment required by Cathedral choirs. Children do not have to read music (although this would be a great benefit!) but natural musical talent, together with enthusiasm, intelligence and a willingness to commit to the choir and learn are prioritised. Probationers are also given free intense small group training on Friday evenings before the main rehearsal until their graduation.
The choir meets on Wednesday for evensong 5-6pm, on Friday for rehearsal 6.15-8.15pm (with probationers meeting slightly earlier for small group training) and on Sunday for Morning Service 9-10.45am, practice 11.15am-12pm and then evensong 5.30-7pm. We do appreciate that this is quite a commitment for our younger singers but we believe the musical education more than makes up for it, with a number of our trebles going on to musical scholarships.
Trebles receive termly payment based on their attendance (please discuss details with our musical director David or our head Soprano Eleanor). The choir closes for the Summer holidays but as Christmas and Easter are our busiest times, choristers are expected to attend during these holiday periods, receiving some time off in lieu afterwards. We use an app called Konzermeister so parents can easily keep track of rehearsals and services.
Choral / organ scholars
Our Organ/Choral Scholarships are open to any 6th former, aged 16+ of grade 8+ organ or grade 7/8 or equivalent who would like to develop their skills with a view to an undergraduate organ scholarship at university.
This is a paid position as a bursary. We have historical links with colleges at Oxford and Cambridge and a high success rate with undergraduate choral scholarship applications, please contact us with a short outline of your singing/playing abilities
Kingston Parish Church Choir WebsiteAuditioning to become a treble.
The audition consists of a short piece of music chosen by you that the child is confident to sing and demonstrates their abilities, followed by some singing and rhythm tests and questions about what they like about singing.
If your child would like to be accompanied on the piano, you may need to provide sheet music. The audition would normally take place before or after rehearsal but we can be accommodating if this is difficult. Please email [email protected] to arrange.
Click here to see an auditionYork Minster Trip
Our choir is often invited to other significant churches and cathedrals in the UK as a “guest choir” to take part in services and events. Our most recent trip was to York Minster in October 2024. Please click below to watch two of the services.
Please click on the below links and Gallery for details of the weekend in 2024
Adult Altos, Tenors and Basses
Our adults are semi-professional, experienced singers who are volunteers for our regular services: Sunday Choral Eucharist, Choral Evensong, and Wednesday Choral Evensong. Choir adults receive ISM and MU rate fees for any weddings and funerals. Experienced singers are very welcome to audition, Altos, Tenors and Basses, who are confident sight readers and who might like to join our list of deputy singers to expand their singing. We would also be very happy to hear from singers who might like a regular commitment and become a voluntary Lay Clerk. The audition for the choir consists of:
A solo piece like an aria, or art-song in any language including English
Sight reading test: 16th Century polyphony, Romantic era English choral accompanied music
We would be delighted to hear from anyone who might be interested. Auditions can be arranged on request. Please email our choir administrator, Kate Shrimpton [email protected] to arrange an audition.
Our Junior Choir
Our Junior Choir meets weekly on Fridays 4-5pm in term time. There is no audition and the children learn a mix of secular and church music led by our hugely talented and experienced musical director; David Condry together with DBS checked volunteers. Sessions take place mostly in the choir vestry of the beautiful All Saints Kingston with children learning pieces to perform for termly concerts and occasional services.
The choir has been set up with special funding so is currently free with the expectation that members commit to attending a termly concert (generally at the end of each school term on a Tuesday after school) and to attend a Sunday service once a term (Christmas, Mother’s day etc).
Singing has many benefits for brain development in children, including an improved sense of hearing, memory and concentration and has also been shown to accelerate brain development, notably in reading, maths and languages.
Each session is great fun and an excellent opportunity to meet other children, form new friendships and enjoy singing together. Why not bring your child along to our next session to see if singing at All Saints is right for them? Email [email protected] for full details.
Lifting Young Voices
A project specially designed for schools led by a music lead experienced with dealing with children in a school setting
This well established program has been written for the curriculum, singing has many benefits for brain development in children, including an improved sense of hearing, memory and concentration and has also been shown to actually accelerate brain development, notably in language acquisition, reading and maths skills.
Successfully piloted at St Johns and St Josephs schools, Mrs Lulu Esua, Head teacher of St John’s primary school in Kingston said “We have been very fortunate to be part of LYV, the children are very engaged with it and it’s been part of their music curriculum and the children have actually got more than we thought they’d get out of it” Juliet Barter Music lead of St John’s school said “our school doesn’t have a specialised music teacher for the children so to get singing teaching at this level of professionalism is something we wouldn’t be able to offer without people coming in from outside”
Mike Board, Year 6 teacher at St Josephs said “we’ve been doing the program (since September 23) and they’ve been enjoying opportunities they never usually would and its helped with their musical education taking the pressure off us because of Mr Condry and the program and I’d recommend it to anyone”
“We can really see where their confidence has developed, especially with their singing and being able to project their voices….it’s great to have this opportunity to have a concert at All Saints”
Following successful funding bids from the Diocese of Southwark and Cathedral Music Trust, we are currently able to offer a full year of singing lessons in selected schools totally free of charge based on one session per year group, up to an hour and a half of an experienced/ professional singer/ teacher. The Programme includes a termly concert at All Saints which hosts a large and experienced cathedral quality choir with links to Tiffins, Cambridge university etc
If after the first year, your school doesn’t wish to continue with the project, lessons conclude at the end of the term with nothing to pay, if you do, funding can be discussed at that point.
Before commencing the project, our director of Music would begin with a music assembly for the whole or selected members of school which is also totally free and is a great way for you to meet David to see if the project matches with what your school is aiming for. There really is no catch, just an opportunity for a music assembly that your teachers don’t need to plan or manage which includes some great singing/rhythm exercises.
Sessions are bookable from September onwards.
All Saints is the historic Parish Church of Kingston, founded in the 13th Century. It is a member of the Greater Churches Group and the choir has documented roots as old as the building itself. It has a rich history of music and royal links and is arguably Kingston’s best music venue, seating an audience of approx 450 people.
Anthems
Explore our vast selection of anthems by renowned composers, complete with lyrics.
Music Hire
It may be possible to hire sets (of up to 40) of choral music that is in our library, provided it is not required for our own use. This table gives an indication of what might be available.
Composer | Title | Publisher | No. Available For Hire |
---|---|---|---|
arr. Wilberg | Ding! dong! merrily on high | OUP | 30 |
Bainton | And I saw a new heaven | Novello | 40 |
Byrd | Second Service | Waynflete Music | 30 |
Chilcott | Little Jazz Mass | OUP | 35 |
Dove | Ecce beatam lucem | Faber | 35 |
Dove | Missa Brevis | Peters | 40 |
Duruflé | Messe cum jubilo | Durand | 20 |
Goodall | The Lord is my shepherd | Faber | 35 |
Grier | Two Advent Responsories | Faber | 40 |
Harwood | Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in A flat | RSCM | 40 |
Haydn | Creation, The | Novello | 10 |
Haydn | Missa Sancti Joannis de Deo | OUP | 40 |
Haydn | Missa Sancti Nicolai | Faber | 40 |
Holst | Christmas Day – a choral fantasia | Sacred Music Press | 35 |
Mozart | Coronation Mass | Breitkopf & Härtel | 40 |
Mozart | Missa Brevis in C | Bärenreiter | 40 |
Mozart | Missa Brevis in D | Bärenreiter | 40 |
Mozart | Spatzenmesse | Bärenreiter | 40 |
Naylor | Vox dicentis | Curwen | 25 |
Palestrina | Missa Brevis | Chester | 40 |
Poulenc | O magnum Mysterium | Salabert | 40 |
Poulenc | Videntes stellam | Salabert | 45 |
Rutter | Jesus child | OUP | 40 |
Rutter | Star carol | OUP | 35 |
Rutter | Wexford carol | OUP | 40 |
Rutter | What sweeter music | OUP | 40 |
Schubert | Mass in G | Peters | 30 |
Stainer | Crucifixion, The | Novello | 35 |
Stanford | Lighten our Darkness | RSCM | 35 |
Stanford | Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in A | 40 | |
Stanford | Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in F | Cathedral Music | 40 |
Tchaikovsky | Masterworks of the Russian Orthodox Church | Faber | 40 |
Vaughan Williams | Communion Service in D minor | OUP | 30 |
Vaughan Williams | Fantasia on Christmas Carols | Stainer & Bell | 35 |
Victoria | O quam gloriosum – mass & motet | Novello | 40 |
To enquire about music hire please click here.