Gospel Choir Performs at Royal Albert Hall

Following on from its success at the Music for Youth National Festival in July, the Christ’s Hospital Gospel Choir was invited to perform at the Music for Youth Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. The event celebrates the very best of young music-making from across the UK, showcasing all genres and styles.

Entirely student-led, the Gospel Choir is one of the jewels in the school’s musical crown. It leads the worship in Chapel and performs at school events, as well as at occasions outside of CH, such as the Black History Month service at Chichester Cathedral, at Lambeth Palace on the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and, for the first time this year, at St Paul’s Cathedral as part of the service marking St Matthew’s Day and 350 years of the Royal Mathematical School.

At the Proms, the choir performed the Kingdom Choir’s arrangement of Stand By Me with a solo from Harvey (GR/Year 13), and the choir’s own arrangement of a praise medley, featuring a solo from Kyria (GR/Year 13). The singers earned rapturous applause from the audience and experienced something of a celebrity moment as they made their way out of the hall and onto the ‘tour bus’ home. The choir’s achievement is all the more remarkable for the leadership shown by the students and their accompanying band: not a teacher in sight!

For the few lucky people who ever get to perform at the Royal Albert Hall, it is usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For the Gospel Choir, though? Perhaps not.