St George’s Cathedral, mother church of the Archdiocese of Southwark, has released a series of video recordings of much loved hymns, performed by the various Cathedral choirs, together with two organ pieces.

Among the St George’s Cathedral choirs – led by Jonathan Schranz, who has been Director of Music since 2019, is the Southwark Singing Programme. This choir is made up of children from primary schools across south London and Kent and aims to develop a passion for music in Catholic Schools, part of the National Schools Singing Programme.

Children from the Southwark Singing Programme sang a range of hymns, including The Power of the Cross and In Christ Alone.

The main Cathedral Choir is made up of boys and girl choristers aged 7 to 12 along with nine professional singers known as Lay Clerks. The choir performed hymns such as Ave Verum Corpus, Tantum Ergo and Forty Days and Forty Nights.

The Cathedral Lay Clerks also recorded Gregorian chants including Veni Creator Spiritus and In Splendoribus Sanctorum, as well as Allegri’s famous Miserere mei, Deus.

Jonathan Schranz said: ‘The Church’s musical tradition is a treasure of inestimable value, and musicians have a duty to preserve this great tradition. In our own way, in Southwark, we are privileged to be able to use our voices to direct hearts and minds upwards on a weekly basis through liturgical singing.

‘We are delighted to release these recordings and hope people enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoyed performing. While we’ve included many beloved hymns, we’ve also added some which may be less known but are wonderful pieces of divine worship.

‘It was a particular joy to work with children from our archdiocesan schools on these recordings. The passion the children have for singing and music is one we should not only embrace, but fervently encourage.’

The full set of recordings is available on the Archdiocese of Southwark’s YouTube channel. As well as being promoted on social media, the performances will be shared with schools and parishes to encourage the use of music as a form of worship and prayer.