Music at St John’s

St John’s has a long and rich musical tradition. It was one of the churches which embraced the revival of plainsong in churches in the 19th Century, and our organ is one of the finest in London. Healey Willan was organist here before moving to Canada.

St John’s has a fabulous acoustic, and we are delighted to host a variety of ensembles, choirs and orchestras to perform concerts. Details of these are found in our Events page.

Our Choirs

St John’s is delighted to have both the St John’s Singers who join us once a month, and our Choral Scholars who sing at other services. Both the St John’s Singers and St John’s Choral Scholars are directed by Toby Ward.

St John’s Singers

This is our voluntary choir who sing a service once a month. They meet at 5.00pm to rehearse before our service at 6.30. Tea and cake is always provided. This is a friendly group of singers, and is always keen to hear from prospective new members. If you’d like to know more about joining them, please contact us. Our music list will be found at the bottom of the page.

Future dates for the St John’s Singers in 2024 are 20 October; 10 November; 15 December (earlier rehearsal from 4.00).

St John’s Choral Scholars

We’re delighted to have four choral scholars who join us regularly. Maddie Morris (S); Charlie Davies (CT/A); Charlie Eastwood (T) and Luca Wetherall (B) are our current scholars. We’re grateful for the generosity of congregation members for their contributions towards their costs.

The Organ

Our magnificent organ was mostly built by Augustus Gern from 1874, with later additions by Henry Willis (1928). For full details please see the National Organ Register The organ is in need of a major overhaul, and details of how you can help are here.

The organist at St John’s is Mark Denza.

Music List

Please follow the link to our music list for the current month.