The choir
The present church choir, one of the finest choirs of its type in the UK, is an excellent mixed-voice choir with over 30 members who are currently 'brought up to music' by Stephen Dagg, Director of Music.
The choir’s repertoire of sacred music ranges from the 16th to the 21st centuries, including a recently commissioned and premièred work by Roxanna Panufnik. The choir sings to a cathedral-standard every week at the Sung Eucharist on Sunday and Choral evensong every last Sunday in the month. It also sings at special services during the year and goes on tour each summer. Recent tours have been to Dordogne/Aquitaine (2013), Bordeaux (2014) and Rome (2011,2012,2016).
In addition to its primary function of leading services at St Alfege Church the choir is often invited to sing at other venues and has been broadcast on television on the South Bank Show. In 2012 the choir was broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 and also whilst on tour to Rome, on Vatican radio.
Stephen Dagg, Director of Music
Stephen Dagg is Director of Music at St Alfege Church where cathedral standard music can be heard every Sunday. The choir has broadcast on TV and radio and recorded on the Nimbus and Meridian labels. Stephen is an organist, harpsichordist and choral conductor as well as a leader in music education in the UK. In 1993 Stephen was appointed Director of the Centre for Young Musicians (CYM), since 2009 a Division of the Guildhall School, which offers talented pupils high quality instrumental/vocal training taught by London’s most distinguished instrumentalists, singers and teachers. In 2007, under his stewardship, the CYM became a national Centre for Advanced Training. In 2014 he was appointed Director of the Guildhall Young Artists programme developing the CYM model nationally.
From 1985 to 2017 Stephen had responsibility for the internationally renowned London Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO). With the LSSO, which is a significant ambassador for Britain’s youth abroad, Stephen has toured throughout Europe as well as in Japan and Argentina working with a “Who’s who” of internationally acclaimed artists from Sir Colin Davis and Sir Simon Rattle to Dudley Moore and Robbie Coltrane. Stephen has commissioned new work from many distinguished contemporary British composers including David Matthews, Derek Bourgeois, Diana Burrell, Sir John Tavener and, most recently, Roxanna Panufnik.
Ben Newlove, Assistant Organist
Ben Newlove FRCO ATCL has been appointed to the post of Assistant Organist at St. Alfege Church starting on January 2020. Ben lives locally and has previously held posts at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, St. Paul’s Knightsbridge, St. Michael’s Church Cornhill and was organ scholar at St. George’s Chapel Windsor. He also has recent experience of deputy work at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel and is currently pursuing his studies at King’s College London.