The concert at the Cathedral of All Saints, Albany on 17th April was recorded and may be listened to online. (Please note, this link will not function on Google Chrome. Please use Safari or Firefox and possibly Internet Explorer).

The running order for the podcast is:

• Eric Whitacre - I thank You God for most this amazing day
• Jonathan Dove – Bless the Lord O my soul
• Allegri - Miserere 12 minutes
• John Sheppard - Gaude, gaude virgo Maria
• J.S.Bach - Singet dem Herr'n
• Frank Martin - Mass for double choir 
• Ralph Vaughan Williams - Three Shakespeare songs
• Paul Mealor - Now sleeps the crimson petal
• Edward Elgar - There is sweet music

The USA Tour Choir start their rehearsals tonight. 

Follow progress of the tour on our Facebook page.

Tickets are still available for the pre-tour concert in Holy Trinity Church, Guildford this Friday 13th April at 7.30pm. 

Please go to visitguildford.com or tickets will be available on the door.

I am pleased to tell you that the US concert tour dates are now fixed for April 2012. I think that the choir of 28 singers is superb and I am greatly looking forward to it. We are being financially supported by an ex-Rod and several other generous, kind well-wishers but we still have the challenge of reaching out £14,000 target. If you would like to donate to the USA tour fund please follow the link below.
Ralph Allwood

Sunday 15th April 2012
St Thomas Church 5th Avenue, New York
11am Eucharist participation

Sunday 15th April 2012
St Mary the Virgin, 145 West 46th St, New York
5pm Evensong

Tuesday 17th April 2012
Cathedral of All Saints, 62 South Swan St. Albany, NY
7pm Concert

Thursday 19th April 2012
Christ Church Christiana Hundred, 501 EBuck Rd, Wilmington
7.30pm Concert

Saturday 21st April 2012
St Paul's K Street, 2430 K Street, NW, Washington DC
7pm Concert

Sunday 22nd April 2012
Christ Church Alexandria, 118 North Washington Street, Alexandria, Virginia
9am and 11.15am Morning Eucharist participation

Rodolfus Choir Soprano, Katherine Arnott is organising a fundraising concert for the Rods USA April Tour, An Evening with the Portsmouth Harbourettes.

A concert of beautiful contemporary music from the University of Portsmouth's first female harmony group. Arrangements of songs made famous by Adele, Eva Cassidy and many more artists.

Saturday 17th March

St. Peter's Church, Bishop's Waltham, 6.30pm-8.00pm

In aid of The Friends of St.Peter's and The Rodolfus Choir tour to the USA

Tickets: £10 adults, includes a glass of wine; £5 children 16 and under

Contact:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

(Charity no: 1033702 Charity no: 299807)

Please note the new concert time of 6pm on the Come and Sing Brahms Requiem day.

The Rodolfus Choir American Tour 14th-23rd April 2012

The details of the choir's tour to the East Coast of America are nearly finalised. So far the Rodolfus Choir will be visiting St Thomas New York, All Saints Cathedral in Albany, Christ Church Christiana Hundred in Wilmington and St Paul's Church Alexandria. The repertoire will included works by Tallis, Byrd, Mealor and Whitacre. More details will follow shortly.

The tour has been generously supported by a former member of Rodolfus, now resident in the USA. The tour has been supported generously by a former member the the choir but there is a shortfall and we need to raise money to fund the tour. If you would like to donate please go to www.virginmoneygiving.com or click on the button below.

Many efforts are being made by the choir – collectively and individually – to bridge the gap. The Come and Sing Brahms Requiem is just one event, and the American Tour Preview Concert at Holy Trinity Guildford will we trust swell the coffers a bit more. 

The latest broadcast by the Rodulfus Choir was featured in today's Daily Telegraph as one of Sunday's radio highlights. Gillian Reynolds recommends listening to the repeat of the Epiphany Sequence on Radio 3 on Sunday 8th January at 3pm (originally broadcast on Wednesday). If you miss it, you'll be able to listen to it on the iplayer until Wednesday the 11th. 

It is with enormous pride and pleasure that Trustees of the Rodolfus Choir and Friends of Ralph Allwood announce the news that Ralph has been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List of 2012.

Ralph Allwood has been a champion of young singers for the last forty years and he continues to be a magnificent enabler, providing positive opportunities for youngsters to learn excellent music in the best, most inspiring conditions.  An indefatigable encourager, he has spent the last four decades conducting and teaching music, inspiring a huge range of young people to find joy and fulfilment in the greatest music available and he has been responsible for starting the careers of many singers now prominent in the UK’s music industry.

From being a school Director of Music (at Pangbourne, Uppingham and Eton College) he has spent his ‘spare’ time running holiday courses in choral music for young people, providing extraordinary opportunities for children to share facilities and music teaching which are normally reserved for a privileged few during term time.  These courses have blossomed for the last thirty or so years from an initial single week’s course to the seven one-week courses which now take place under the Eton Choral Course banner.  The strength and continued success of the Eton Choral Courses is entirely due to the creative energy of Ralph Allwood, and these courses are now attended each year by over four hundred singers aged between 16 and 20, open to youngsters from all backgrounds and schools, and over 110 of these courses have now been held.

Not content with devoting his summers to these courses, Ralph has created further chances for some of their participants to meet up again, give concerts and make recordings of outstanding quality in his Rodolfus Choir. This group meets during the remaining few weeks left to him in the year.  And when the odd few spare days pop up through his schedule he usually spends them travelling through the country and abroad (from the US to China) coaching other choirs – he was twice invited to be conductor for the National Youth Choir of Wales – and being consultant and judge at festivals such as the Llangollen International Eisteddfod.  He has also begun a choral course for younger children in the spring holidays. 

Ralph’s Rodolfus Choir goes from strength to strength, with recent recordings of the Bach B Minor Mass, Monteverdi’s Vespers, choral works by Howells and the soon to be released choral music of Elgar.  The Rodolfus Choir’s CDs have drawn four-star reviews from BBC Music Magazine, The Times and other national daily newspapers.

Recently retired from Eton College, Ralph is taking his choral work to new communities.  One of these projects sees a major new venture, co-founding Inner Voices, a choir for young people from ten different inner London state schools, the group will be launched later this month (18th January 2012).

For more information on the work of Ralph Allwood, please see his website.   

We will be singing a programme of the English Romantics in Cheltenham College Chapel on January 2nd at 7pm. 

Programme to include:

• Parry, Songs of Farewell
• Elgar, Part Songs
• Strauss, Der Abend
• other music for Epiphany

Tickets £15 (£12 concessions, £10 Students)

To buy tickets, please contact the box office (details below) or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Box Office: 0208 878 5095 or 01242 265600

Independent review site MusicWeb International have published a glowing review of our Herbert Howells CD:

From the very opening of this disc - a mixture of sacred and secular choral works - the Rodolfus Choir, under the astute directorship of Ralph Allwood, capture Howells’s idiom perfectly, and their understanding of this music is reflected in the high quality of their performances.

...Other works presented include the Collegium Regale Te Deum and Jubilate, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from the Dallas Service (commissioned by the director of music at St Luke’s Episcopal Church in Dallas – American Anglicans were great followers of Howells’s music at that time), and God be in my head. The latter was a composition demonstration that Howells gave to a pupil, written within the student’s hour-long lesson. The Rodolfus Choir here give a glowing account of this simple but incredibly effective piece.

The disc concludes with A Hymn for St Cecilia, commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Musicians to celebrate Howells’s time as Master of the Company. It is a splendid conclusion to an excellent disc of exquisite and radiant singing.

Read the full review.

This CD is available to purchase on our website.