About City Chorus

City Chorus (formerly known as the National Westminster Choir) is one of the oldest amateur choirs in London. We began life in 1920 as a choir set up by staff of the then National Provincial Bank.

Highlights of the choir's early years include its inaugural performance at Westminster Central Hall, Ralph Vaughan Williams conducting his own Fantasia on Christmas Carols, and one of the choir's concerts shown on television - a novelty at the time.

Over its more than 100 year history, City Chorus has had just five conductors. Paul Ayres has been our musical director since 2008.

The choir is open to all, without audition, and holds three or four concerts a year. A selection of our past concerts:

2026 - Spring: Haydn's Nelson Mass and excerpts from Messiah accompanied by the London Orchestra da Camera

2025 - Summer Odyssey (performed in London and in Bath with two local choirs)

2025 - Spring: Michael Haydn's Requiem accompanied by the London Orchestra da Camera

2024 - Summer: Puccini Messa di Gloria

2024 - Spring: Mozart Requiem and Vespers accompanied by the London Orchestra da Camera

2023 - "We reunite", spring concert (performed in London and Son in the Netherlands with EeenvanZin)

2022 - Centenary Concert: Mozart Coronation Mass, Handel My Heart is Inditing

2022 - Spring: Handel, Sullivan, Goss and Mendelsohn

2019 - Rossini Messe Solennnelle

2018 – Songs of Travel incl. new works from four composers (in London and on the Isle of Man with the Lon Dhoo choir)

2018 - The Armed Man (Jenkins)

2017 – Riversong (performed in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival)

2017 – Durufle Requiem and Vivaldi Magnificat

2016 – Music from Two Islands (performed in London and on the Isle of Wight with the Orpheus Singers)

2016 – Faure Requiem

2015 – Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols

2015 – Spring Songs (performed in London and in Brussels with Le Choeur Sammartini)

2014 - Stabat Mater (Pergolesi) - The Frost Chorale Concert (Southwark Cathedral) - Cries of London

2013 - Heinichen & Vivaldi - Royal Music (Handel, Britten, Walton, Elgar, Stanford)

2012 - Songs of Sports & Games - Ring out, wild bells

2011 - A Celebration of Motherhood - 90 Years of Note (Vaughan Williams, Handel, Ives, Andrew)

2010 - Around the World in Eighty Minutes - Haydns, Mozarts & Mendelssohns

2009 - Baroque Discoveries (Heinichen, Kuhnau, Lotti, Grabu & Handel)

2008 - Excerpts from Carmen (Bizet)

2008 - Elijah (Mendelssohn)

2007 - Anthem on the Peace and the Foundling Hospital Anthem (Handel) & Gloria (Vivaldi)

2007 - Carmina Burana (Orff)

Musical Director: Paul Ayres

Paul Ayres was born in Perivale, west London, studied music at Oxford University, and now works freelance as a composer & arranger, choral conductor & musical director, and organist & accompanist. He has received over one hundred commissions, and his works have been awarded composition prizes in Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Paul particularly enjoys “re-composing” classical works (Purcell, Bach, Handel, Fauré) and “classicizing” pop music (jazz and show tunes, The Beatles, Happy Hardcore). Paul conducts City Chorus and the London College of Music Chorus, accompanies Concordia Voices, and is associate accompanist of Crouch End Festival Chorus. He has led many music education workshops for children, and played piano for improvised comedy shows and musical theatre. Please visit www.paulayres.co.uk to find out more.

Accompanist: Philip Shannon

Philip Shannon took his first degree from Oxford, where he was a mathematics scholar at the age of 16. Encouraged by Roger Vignoles to follow his first love, piano accompaniment, he entered the Guildhall School of Music in 1985 for advanced studies under Paul Hamburger and Gordon Back. After winning all the accompaniment prizes in his first year, he was awarded a scholarship to study vocal repertoire with Graham Johnson. He has been active in every capacity as a musician: as repetiteur with experience at English National Opera and numerous smaller companies; as organist at the church of St Anne's, Soho; as vocal and instrumental coach at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama; as broadcaster on Radio 3 with the violinist Leo Payne, with whom he was a joint winner of the National Federation of Music Societies competition; as pianist for both the London Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras, and continuo player with the London Mozart Players. For television he has worked on the Lesley Garrett Show. In 1997 he received an Honorary Fellowship from the Guild of Musicians and Singers. Philip has been City Chorus' accompanist since 2002.