St. Alban's Choir

Revised 19 May 2008

Highlights | Listen | Concerts | Junior Choir

St. Alban's Choir sings at the 10:00 a.m. Choral Eucharist on Sundays, September through June, and for festival services and concerts several times each year. The choir is made up of about 35 adult volunteers with four professional soloists. Our repertoire includes Gregorian and Anglican chant, Renaissance polyphony, music of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, and works by contemporary composers.

Rehearsals are on Thursday evening from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., with a Sunday morning warm-up rehearsal at 9:15 a.m. If you are interested in singing with us, please contact our organist and choirmaster, James Vail.

See also Music at St. Alban's for information about our annual concert series.

Click to read about St. Alban's Junior Choir.

Highlights of Our Activities

St. Alban's Choir was organized in its present form in 1969 when James Vail was appointed organist and choirmaster. Since then, St. Alban's Church has become widely known for its fine music.

In the summer of 1988 we made our first concert tour to Europe with the choir of St. Cyril of Jerusalem Church, Encino (William Beck, organist and director). We sang at Ely and Canterbury cathedrals in England, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, and the Church of St. Jacques-sur-Coudenberg in Brussels. A highlight of this tour was singing Evensong at the Cathedral & Abbey Church of St. Alban on St. Alban's Day, June 22.

Concert at Canterbury Cathedral, June 1988

In March 1996 we took part in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Western Division Convention in Pasadena, where we performed the Mass by Igor Stravinsky, with woodwind ensemble, at First United Methodist Church.

Our second European tour was in the summer of 1998 with the Mansfield Chamber Singers of Los Angeles (Kenneth Wells, music director). In Germany we sang at Schloss Zeilitzheim (a small castle near Bamberg), and Stift Haug (a major church in Würzburg). In the Czech Republic we performed a concert at the Church of Sts. Simon and Jude in Prague, including music of Petr Eben and Jiři Ropek, both of whom were present. In Austria we gave a concert at the Ursuline Church in Linz and sang the Sunday High Mass at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.

In February 2005 we were one of five choirs invited to sing for the Worship Division of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Convention in Los Angeles. This performance took place at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Listen to St. Alban's Choir

The following are recordings of St. Alban's Choir conducted by James Vail. Each selection lasts between one and three minutes. These MP3 files are large and may take some time to download.

The first two selections are from our recording, A St. Alban's Christmas, and the others are from live concert performances.

In the bleak midwinter
Christmas hymn with music by Gustav Holst and text by Christina Rossetti (William Beck, organ)

Play (2.2 MB)

Magnificat (Song of Mary)
Canticle with text from Luke 1:46-55 set to plainsong and music by Thomas Morley

Play (2.0 MB)

Ave verum corpus
Setting of a traditional Latin text for choir and strings by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K 618

Play (3.3 MB)

O wondrous love, O Love all loves excelling
Chorale from the St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 245, No. 7

Play (1.3 MB)

O mighty King, almighty through all ages
Chorale from the St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 245, No. 27

Play (1.8 MB)