Westminster Cathedral Choir Embarks on US Tour

The internationally renowned Westminster Cathedral Choir recently flew to Atlanta, Georgia, to embark on their two-week US tour.

The first concert of the tour takes place at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta, this Friday.

Concert programmers will include a cross-section of the choir's large repertoire from every age of choral music, from Gregorian chant to the 21st century, including two American works: the Adagio (Agnus Dei) by Barber, and a new piece by a composer from Minnesota, David Evan Thomas.

"It is tremendously exciting for Westminster Cathedral Choir to be undertaking a tour of the United States," said Westminster Cathedral's Master of Music, Martin Baker. "The choir has an established reputation as one of the world's leading Cathedral choirs, and so it is a great opportunity for our choristers to perform their repertoire to new audiences. I hope that the audiences in the eight cities which we will be visiting will be as captivated by the performances as those in London have been."

As the only professional Catholic choir in the world to sing daily Mass and Vespers, Westminster Cathedral Choir is held in high regard not just in the Roman Catholic Church but in the music world in general.

The choir recently gave premiere performances of Masses by Roxanna Panufnik, James MacMillan, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Judith Bingham, in the Cathedral.

The US tour will see the choir performing at Washington National Cathedral, Washington DC; St Thomas' Church, New York; Cathedral of St. Paul, St Paul, Minnesota; St Louis Cathedral Basilica, St Louis, Missouri; Visitation Catholic Church, Kansas City, Missouri; and the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Cleveland, Ohio. The tour concludes with a concert at First Union Methodist Church, Birmingham, Detroit, on 25 October.

In addition, recent tours have taken them to Hungary, Germany, Belgium, Norway and Italy.