Ralph Allwood MBE DMus was for 26 years Director of Music at Eton College and is now a freelance choral director, teacher and conductor. He is the Director of the Rodolfus (ex-Eton) Choral Courses, which he founded in 1980. He co-founded the Junior Choral Courses in 2012. Ten thousand 8 to 20 year-olds have since been students on courses. In recent years he has launched courses in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The Rodolfus choir has produced over 20 CDs since he founded it in 1982.  

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

Ralph has conducted choirs for 40 live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. He has composed much music for Extreme Music Ltd, heard worldwide on radio, films and television. He teaches at his old grammar school, Tiffin. He is a co-founder of the National Youth Music Theatre.  

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.  

In 2017, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented him with the Thomas Cranmer Award for Music and Worship.

Ralph’s 70th Birthday Concert, 30th April, St Gabriel’s Church Pimlico

Requiem op 48, Gabriel Fauré
Symphony no 4 in E minor op 98, Johannes Brahms

Brandenburg Sinfonia conducted by Ralph Allwood, who says

“My favourite of the wonderful Brahms Symphonies is no 4, but it is the only one I haven’t conducted. So I thought I would indulge myself on my birthday! Guest of Honour is the superb teacher who first introduced me to it in 1966, David Nield, who was Director of Music at Tiffin School, Kingston for his whole career. The choir will simply be those in the audience who sing. They will sit in a special area.  There will be drinks after, and the whole thing is in aid of the Pimlico Musical Foundatin”

3.15-4.30 Rehearsal for those wishing to sing.
5.30 Concert.

Book Tickets

Choir of the Earth - National Anthem

In this Platinum Jubilee year, Choir of the Earth would like to present Her Majesty The Queen with a new recording of God Save The Queen on June 1st 2022

Ralph has written a new arrangement specially for this course. To accompany the Choir of the Earth, Luke Bond, Assistant Director of Music, will play the organ at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. The rehearsal tracks are sung by members of The Rodolfus Choir.

At the end of these rehearsals, you are invited to record and send your own voice which will be combined in the studio to create the full choir.

https://choiroftheearth.com/god-save-the-queen

Self Isolation Choir - Hymns

Following the success of the ABBA course, Ralph partned with SIC to unite 1000 people in the perforamce of eight hymns. 

The organs of Llandaff Cathedral, Peterborough Cathedral, Washington Cathedral, Belfast Cathedral, Liverpool Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, All Saints Episcopal Church (TX, USA) and St Paul's Cathedral accompanied the peices.

Each hymn was introduced by familar faces including Stephen Fry, Sir Bryn Terfel, and Katherin Jenkins OBE.

Profits from this project were donated to the RSCM, Cathedral Music Trust, The Choral Evensong Trust, and the Rodolfus Foundation.

https://www.theselfisolationchoir.com/hymns

Self Isolation Choir - ABBA

Launced in March 2020 to provide choral opportunities during the pandemic, the Self Isolation Choir has seen 12,000 participants since its inception. 

Ralph and Lora Sansun have arranged  five ABBA pieces for SATB voices. Over the course of three weeks Ralph taught these pieces which participants then recorded for a final concert on 13th March 2021. The final choir amounted to over 600 singers.

More information about the course can be found here.

https://www.theselfisolationchoir.com/abba

Virtual Evensong

Ralph directed the Rodolfus Foundation’s #VirtualEvensong on the 19th May 2020. The broadcast, made of of 900 submissions, saw over 8,000 viewers during the premiere on YouTube. The full service can still be viewed below. 

The project, in association with ChoralEvensong.org, is in aid of the Cathedral Choirs’ Emergency Fund, set up by the Friends of Cathedral Music and the Ouseley Church Music Trust.

Telegraph Review - ‘Bedroom singing taken to a whole new level’

https://www.therodolfusfoundation.org.uk/virtual-evensong

Classic FM : Virtual Choral Evensong

Choristers join Stephen Fry and Alexander Armstrong for virtual choral Evensong service. The timeless church service to soothe the nation and support singers during COVID-19 lockdown.

Read here.

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.

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.

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.

Roderick Williams :
Sacred Choral Works, 2017

Rodolfus Choir :
Time and Its Passing, 2015

Katherine Jenkins with Rodolfus Choir :  Sacred Arias, 2008

Eton College Chapel Choir : Hear My Words, 2008