Advent Live - Volume 1 is our first album to feature a selection of live recordings from four of our Advent Carol Services, which have been broadcast every year by BBC Radio 3 since 1981.

The Advent Carol Services are a very important part of the Choir's year, and this album provides a unique insight into this experience. As our Director of Music Andrew Nethsingha writes in his introduction to the disc, "A particular frisson comes from having members of the congregation surrounding the choir, less than a metre away on all four sides, whilst the service is broadcast live around the world... In the 2016 service I remember finding that a distinguished former choir-member, Iestyn Davies, was sitting right opposite one of his current successors, Hugh Cutting, as Hugh was singing the big Gibbons solo heard here. You don't get that kind of adrenaline in a recording session!"

The album includes numerous works that were written for the Choir, and also features words and music composed and arranged by members of St John's College, including former choral student James Burton, former organ students Stephen Cleobury and Ian Shaw, current fellow Tim Watts, and William Wordsworth, who matriculated from St John's in 1787.

The Choir were fortunate to be joined in the performances by Johnian violinists Stephanie Childress and Julia Hwang (whose debut album Subito is on the 'St John's Cambridge' label) as well as harpist Anne Denholm, who recorded Janáček's Otčenáš with us for our album Kyrie.

* indicates premiere recording