Westminster Abbey Choir School is a boarding preparatory school for boys in Westminster, London and the only remaining choir school in the United Kingdom which exclusively educates choristers. It is located in Dean's Yard, by Westminster Abbey. It educates about 30 boys, aged 8–13 who sing in the Choir of Westminster Abbey which takes part in state and national occasions as well as singing evensong everyday (except Wednesday) and gives concert performances around the world. Its most recent tour was to Moscow, singing in the International House of Music there. Other tours included trips to Australia, America, and Hong Kong.
The Headmaster is Jonathan Milton, former Headmaster of The Abbey School, Tewkesbury. The Organist and Master of the Choristers is James O'Donnell, former Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral.
Read more about Westminster Abbey Choir School: History, Governors, Inspections, Curriculum, The Choir, Notable Former Pupils
Famous quotes containing the words westminster abbey, abbey, choir and/or school:
“Westminster Abbey is nature crystallized into a conventional form by man, with his sorrows, his joys, his failures, and his seeking for the Great Spirit. It is a frozen requiem, with a nation’s prayer ever in dumb music ascending.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“The Abbey always reminds me of that old toast, “Above lofty timbers, the walls around are bare, echoing to our laughter, as though the dead were there.””
—Garrett Fort (1900–1945)
“As night is withdrawn
From these sweet-springing meads and bursting boughs of May,
Dream, while the innumerable choir of day
Welcome the dawn.”
—Robert Bridges (1844–1930)
“[How] the young . . . can grow from the primitive to the civilized, from emotional anarchy to the disciplined freedom of maturity without losing the joy of spontaneity and the peace of self-honesty is a problem of education that no school and no culture have ever solved.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)