The Choral Foundation

Who we are

Our primary charitable purpose is to preserve and promote the unique heritage of English choral music and make it available to all. In so doing, we help to keep alive a music tradition spanning half a millennium in one of Britain’s most important and beautiful
places of worship.

The Choral Foundation funds a regular choir of outstanding adult singers and boy choristers drawn from all backgrounds. We commission new choral compositions, support recordings and – through our Songstars outreach programme – work with hundreds of local school children to make great choral music as accessible as possible.

Our ambition is to grow our reach and impact even further so that more people can benefit from this extraordinary choral musical education and the joy of coming together in song. Plans include the launch of a dedicated North American fundraising arm, the creation of a girls choir, more recordings to showcase the excellence of our musicians, and developing more touring and broadcasting opportunities for them.

Our culture and values

“...this foundation is on the leading edge of accessibility in recruiting choristers.”
Judith Weir CBE, Master of the King’s Music, Patron of the Choral Foundation

The Choral Foundation at His Majesty’s Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, preserves and promotes a unique heritage of choral music 500 years in the making. Recognised as the cradle of Evensong, composers such as Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and Henry Purcell composed for the choir and their music is still being sung here today.

The choir forms part of the Ecclesiastical Establishment of the Royal Household and is an integral part of the iconic Tudor palace open to the public, but it is not fully funded. The Choral Foundation was set up in 2011 to fund the musicians and choristers and build an endowment to secure this historical tradition in perpetuity.

The institution may be 500 years old but the Choral Foundation is forward thinking. The choristers come from a broad range of schools through an open recruitment process designed to spot potential; the Choral Foundation funds their musical education, giving talented young people the opportunity to gain a place in the choir directed by Carl Jackson MVO. 

The Choral Foundation works to bring the music to new audiences and to commission or introduce to the repertoire new choral pieces. Most recently, a local schools’ programme called Songstars has been developed to bring singing into local schools, working with children and their teachers at schools in Hounslow to nurture musical education and the joy of coming together in song.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Diversity and inclusion

The charity supports the music in a Church of England Chapel, so we need an individual who is sympathetic to and supportive of the environment and believes in the cause to support the continuation of high-level church-based music, the education of choristers and support of adult musicians.  However, we would like to emphasise that we encourage applicants from all faiths and none. We also wish to encourage applicants from a diverse range of backgrounds.