The Merbecke Choir is Southwark Cathedral's voluntary choir for young men and women with good sight-reading skills and a creative approach to singing. It offers a unique opportunity for singers to take part in

• cathedral services (notably the Cathedral's monthly Compline services)
• concerts in the cathedral (thrice yearly),
• other secular events such as livery company dinners and corporate celebrations. 

This website includes extensive audio recordings of the choir, including services, concert performances, interviews and members talking about the choir.

HEAR US — BOOK US

Click the image on the right for the Hearus page, where your can enjoy audio recordings of two recent concerts in full, and excerpts from five others.

See the Book us page for details of how the Merbecke Choir could help you. 

The choir's repertoire ranges widely in period as as well as style, from plainsong to music of the present day. See the Hear us page for past and future concert programmes and click-to-play audio excerpts. 

Visit the Join us page for details of entry criteria and auditions. 

NEW AUDIO AND VIDEO

The main audio player was recently updated to include tracks from the choir's 2011 tour to France. The performances of Victoria's Ave Regina Coelorum and The Word of the Cross by Huw Morgan were recorded in La Madeleine, Paris. Victoria's Pueri Hebraeorum and Vere Languores were recorded in Rouen Cathedral. The latter track includes an impromptu performance by the cathedral bells.

Click here for the Merbecke Choir's page on YouTube, featuring six recent videos.

The photographs below were taken during the Choir's Spring 2011 tour to Rouen & Paris.

Hearus

Many thanks to the wonderful audience who attended our Christmas concert on 3rd December. We performed Britten's Ceremony of Carols, motets by Victoria, Sweelinck, and Bouzignac, as well as Hieronymus Praetorius' thrilling setting of the Magnificat (Quinti Toni, or "on the fifth tone") for double choir. We were delighted to be joined by Louise Wiggins on the harp for this concert. Audio coming soon.

We are honoured to sing at a carol service at the Cathedral on 10th December marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of the homeless charity Crisis. More details of this event will appear soon.

The Merbecke Choir sings Compline in Southwark Cathedral on the 4th Sunday of each month at 6.30 pm (except December).  All welcome.

Click on the image on the right for the current list of services and concerts featuring the Merbecke Choir

OPERATION NOAH
& THE MERBECKE CHOIR

The Merbecke Choir provided musical interludes at "The Climate Crisis: A Christian Response" at Southwark Cathedral on 13th October 2009.  The event was led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, setting the scriptural and theological agenda for the crunch UN climate summit in Copenhagen a few weeks later.

The Merbecke Choir sang a special evensong at Southwark  Cathedral on 20th August 2009 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Marchioness disaster. Excerpts from the service, including some of the Choir's singing, were subsequently included in the BBC documentary:
The Marchioness: A Survivor's Story.

Click on the image below for a PDF
of the news report in The Bridge

The photograph below was taken during the recording of Her Majesty the Queen's Christmas Message in 2006, which was recorded in Southwark Cathedral and which included a performance by the Merbecke Choir. 

Click on the photograph to see the broadcast on YouTube: the choir's contribution begins at 6'43". 

SPONSORS WANTED

The choir would welcome potential sponsors for their termly concerts. Your generous support would allow our young musicians the chance to experience performing alongside exciting artists such as His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, and would create a wonderful evening's entertainment for you and your guests. For further details and rates, please email sponsors@merbecke.org.uk.

The pictures below were taken during the Merbecke Choir's summer concert 2009 in Southwark Cathedral, in the presence of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

Photos (including the picture at the head of the page) courtesy of Southwark Cathedral.

HUW MORGAN

The third director of the Merbecke Choir, Huw Morgan, continues the work of his predecessors, Ian Keatley and David Pipe, to develop a young choir that works to the highest standards in keeping with the English cathedral tradition. 

Huw Morgan is a Royal-Academy-trained conductor and composer whose careful teaching of phrasing through the Merbecke Choir's core polyphonic repertoire also enables his singers to produce intelligent and beautifully polished performances of 20th and 21st century music. 

The Choir is named after the Tudor composer, John Merbecke (1510-1585), who composed one of the most popular settings of the Book of Common Prayer Communion Service.

Merbecke, with three other companions, was tried for heresy in 1543 in the Retrochoir at Southwark, which was used for this purpose at the time. He was found guilty and condemned to be burned at the stake. His sentence was commuted however by Bishop Stephen Gardiner, the then Bishop of Winchester, who decided that as a mere musician Merbecke 'knew no better' and so was released to continue his music making.

Click on the image on the right for further information on the Society of Archbishop Justus website.