O Holy Night: Christmas Carols from St John's Choir of St Johns College, Cambridge & Christopher Gray

• Adolphe Adam (1803 - 1856): O holy night:
• 1 Adam: O holy night 05:37
• Sally Beamish (b. 1956): In the stillness:
• 2 Beamish: In the stillness 02:41
• Tamsin Jones: Noel, verbum caro factum est (Multitude of Voyces Edition, 2020):
• 3 Jones: Noel, verbum caro factum est (Multitude of Voyces Edition, 2020) 02:58
• Traditional: Sussex Carol:
• 4 Traditional: Sussex Carol 02:08
• John Rutter (b. 1945): There is a flower:
• 5 Rutter: There is a flower 04:36
• Anonymous: There is no rose:
• 6 Anonymous: There is no rose 03:59
• Three Carol-Anthems:
• 7 Anonymous: Three Carol-Anthems: A Spotless Rose 03:29
• Herbert Howells (1892 - 1983): Three Carol-Anthems:
• 8 Howells: Three Carol-Anthems: Sing Lullaby 03:40
• 9 Howells: Three Carol-Anthems: Here Is The Little Door 03:50
• Traditional: In dulci jubilo:
• 10 Traditional: In dulci jubilo 03:42
• Errollyn Wallen (b. 1958): Peace On Earth:
• 11 Wallen: Peace On Earth 03:47
• Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847): Christus, Op. 97:
• 12 Mendelssohn: Christus, Op. 97: Part 1. "When Jesus our Lord was born" - "Say where is he born" - "There shall a star" 07:16
• Franz Xaver Gruber (1787 - 1863): Stille Nacht:
• 13 Gruber: Stille Nacht 03:43
• Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963): Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël:
• 14 Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël: O Magnum Mysterium 03:15
• 15 Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël: Quem vidistis pastores dicite 02:51
• 16 Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël: Videntes stellem 03:19
• 17 Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël: Hodie Christus natus est 02:19
• Becky McGlade: In the bleak midwinter:
• 18 McGlade: In the bleak midwinter 04:17
• Jonathan Dove (b. 1959): The Three Kings:
• 19 Dove: The Three Kings 05:01
• Total Runtime 01:12:28

Info for O Holy Night: Christmas Carols from St John's

The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, presents O Holy Night, a new album featuring beloved Christmas carols and contemporary additions to the festive repertoire. Released on the St John’s imprint on Signum Records, the album features music often performed in the Choir’s Christmas concerts across Europe.

The album celebrates nearly 200 years of Christmas choral music, featuring works from the 19th century to the present day. Francis Poulenc’s atmospheric Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël form the centre of the programme alongside Three Carol-Anthems by Herbert Howells, who was the Director of Music at St John’s during the Second World War. The album also includes a recording of John Rutter’s There is a flower, which was written for the Choir in 1985 and will be released as the first single from the album on the composer’s 80th birthday, 24 September 2025.

Alongside other festive favourites such as Adolphe Adam’s timeless carol O holy night from which the recording takes its name, Sussex Carol and In dulci jubilo, the album also features some more recent additions to the repertoire. Master of the King’s Music Errollyn Wallen’s 2006 work Peace on earth features alongside Sally Beamish’s In the stillness, Jonathan Dove’s The Three Kings, Becky McGlade’s In the Bleak Midwinter and Tamsin Jones’s Noel: verbum caro factum est from 2017.

O Holy Night is the second recording the Choir has made under Director of Music Christopher Gray, following acclaimed first album Lament & Liberation released in May 2025. The latter was recently named as Choral Choice in BBC Music Magazine along with a 5* review, which stated “Christopher Gray’s first album with St John’s College is an unflinchingly serious programme of contemporary music, ambitious and challenging for both singers and listeners alike… themes of despair and hope explored with conviction in this impressive recording”.

“With this album, it is good to have the opportunity to record some of the repertoire we love sharing with the thousands of people who attend our Christmas concerts each year. My aim with this album has not been to break new ground with repertoire, but to ensure that classics remain fresh for the current generation.” (Christopher Gray)

St John's College Choir Cambridge
Christopher Gray, conductor

The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world, known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its distinctive rich, warm sound, its expressive interpretations and its breadth of repertoire. Alongside these musical characteristics, the Choir is particularly proud of its happy, relaxed and mutually supportive atmosphere. The Choir is directed by Christopher Gray who follows a long line of eminent musicians including, most recently, George Guest, Christopher Robinson, David Hill, and Andrew Nethsingha.

The Choir is made up of boy and girl Choristers who are educated at St John’s College School and altos, tenors, and basses who are mostly members of St John’s and other colleges that make up the University of Cambridge. The Choir’s primary purpose is to enhance the liturgy and worship at seven services each week during term time in the College’s beautiful Gilbert Scott Chapel. The group has a vast repertoire spanning over 500 years, with a special interest in championing new music. In recent decades, there have been commissions from most of the UK’s leading composers of choral music, as well as from numerous early-career artists in Cambridge and elsewhere. The Choir also enjoys joining the period instrument ensemble St John’s Sinfonia to perform Bach cantatas in a liturgical setting each term. There are regular tours across Europe, Asia, and North America, performing in some of the world’s most famous concert venues and cathedrals. Recent tour destinations have included The Netherlands, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Singapore, and the United States. At home in the UK, the Choir has performed in concert venues including Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Royal Albert Hall, St John's Smith Square, and Royal Festival Hall.

In May 2016 the College launched its ‘St John’s Cambridge’ recording label in conjunction with Signum Classics. Since then, 18 Choir albums have been released, including single-composer albums of music by Jonathan Harvey (BBC Music Magazine Award winner), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Michael Finnissy, two of which were shortlisted for Gramophone Awards. In addition to these albums, there have been four ‘Magnificat’ albums of varied Evensong Canticles, an anthem compilation Locus Iste, masses by Poulenc and Kodály, a live anthology The Tree, a Psalms collection, and seasonal albums for Advent, Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Eastertide.

Webcasts of services are available at www.sjcchoir.co.uk and there are live-streamed video broadcasts of Chapel services on Facebook, in association with Classic FM, as well as substantial content on YouTube and Instagram.

Christopher Gray
has been Director of Music at St John’s College since April 2023. With responsibilities focusing on the College’s celebrated Choir and organ, he works with the Choristers, Choral Scholars, Choral Graduates, and Organ Scholars to provide music that enhances the liturgy of the Chapel, upholding a tradition that dates from the 1670s. After early musical education in his hometown of Bangor, Northern Ireland, Christopher became Assistant Organist at St George’s Parish Church, Belfast. At the age of 18 he moved to England to take up the organ scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read music. A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Christopher studied the organ with David Sanger and Nicolas Kynaston at Cambridge. He was subsequently taught by Margaret Phillips at the Royal College of Music, where he was a postgraduate student and a prize-winner. During this time, he also held the organ scholarship at Guildford Cathedral.

In 2000 Christopher was appointed Assistant Director of Music at Truro Cathedral, working closely with Andrew Nethsingha and then Robert Sharpe. In 2008 he became Director of Music, taking on responsibility for the cathedral choir and its seven sung services each week, as well as the Father Willis organ. As Musical Director of Three Spires Singers and Orchestra he conducted most of the large-scale choral-orchestral repertoire.

During his first two years at St John’s, Christopher has directed the Choir on broadcasts including the Advent Carol Service, and on tours to Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and the USA. He has worked with composers on seven new works for the Choir, as well as collaborations with The Gesualdo Six and the Academy of Ancient Music.

Booklet for O Holy Night: Christmas Carols from St John's