Ralph Allwood

Ralph Allwood MBE DMus was for 26 years Director of Music at Eton College and is now a freelance choral director. He is the Director of the Eton Choral Courses, which he founded in 1980. Seven thousand 16 to 20 year olds have been students on courses over the last thirty-seven years. He co-founded the Junior Choral Courses in 2012, and in recent years has launched Courses in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The Rodolfus choir, made up of the best singers from the courses, has produced over 20 CDs since he founded it in 1982.

Ralph is co-founder and conductor of Inner Voices, a choir made up of singers from state schools in London. He is also Director of Chapel Music at Queens’ College Chapel, Cambridge, and Director of the only conservatoire chapel choir in the world, the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir. He is also an Honorary Fellow of University College, Durham.

Ralph has conducted choirs for 40 live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, is a judge for the Llangollen Eisteddfod and has written much music heard worldwide on radio and television. He is Choral Advisor to Novello and to Trinity College, Oxford, and teaches at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and at his old school, Tiffin.

In 2015 he co-founded the Pimlico Musical Foundation to enable children from Pimlico Primary Schools to sing in choirs, particularly at St Gabriel's Church.

Since then, in addition to their own choirs, Pimlico’s five primary schools have produced a Pimlico Children’s Choir and, since September 2018, a Foundation Choir which sings regular Evensongs in St Gabriel‘s Church.

In 2012 Ralph was awarded a Doctorate of Music by Aberdeen University. He was made MBE in the 2012 New Year's Honours list. In 2017, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented him with the Thomas Cranmer Award for Music and Worship.

Press

Music Plus Podcast

Ralph Allwood speaks to Chris Gunness about the joys of working with young people and of keeping alive the English choral tradition.

Listen here.

Texas State Choirs Today Podcast

Ralph and Jonathan talk about his time at Eton as well as his work with at-risk youth in Pimlico, London. All musical excerpts are of the Rodolfus Choir under the direction of Ralph Allwood.

Listen here.

Independent : “We can have a choir as good as Eton's”

Inner Voices brings together musically gifted singers from inner-city London schools to perform in some of the country's top venues. Alice Jones learns how the ambitious project came about – and hears the remarkable results.

Read here.

Rhinegold : Rodolfus Foundation

The newly merged charity will enable children and young people to achieve excellence in choral music through training, bursaries, and participation in high-quality performances.

Read here.