Saint Thomas Choir School

Saint Thomas Choir School was founded in 1919 by the vestry of Saint Thomas Church at the urging of T. Tertius Noble, an English born organist and composer, who had been the organist of Saint Thomas Church since 1913. The school officially opened on March 3, 1919 at its first location, a four-story building at 123 West 55th Street.[2]

In 1985, the church sold the West 55th Street school to Fisher Brothers, property developers, who in turn agreed to build a new choir school designed by the architecture firm Buttrick White & Burtis.[3] Fisher Brothers built the new school on a 75 foot (23 m) wide lot on West 58th Street, having demolished the Elysee Theater (a television studio since 1955, and a theatre or a cinema since 1926).[4] The $18 million 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m²) school building was clad with red brick on a granite base, with a central two-story window trimmed in Indiana limestone. It rose six stories "before stepping back in a tower with a gabled roof that houses the chapel."[5] The new school opened in September 1987.

Students participate in a liturgical music program as well as academic subjects at the school, including English, science, history, mathematics, Latin, French, music theory and theology. Students also participate in an athletic program, competing against local private schools in soccer, basketball and track.

Students are admitted on a rolling basis. The school schedules auditions three times a year for boys entering the third, fourth and fifth grade. Third grade students must live close enough to New York City to return home each weekend and return on Sunday evening, a requirement waived for fourth and fifth graders.[6]

The Choir School also offers placements to those taking a year out between high school and college. These students assist in classroom and sports programs, while also helping in the preparation of the chorister's instrumental practice. Gap students normally have a choral background and an understanding of the daily routine and needs of a choir school. Acceptance is competitive and applicants are screened to ensure their ability to carry out the role.

Currently (2019) directed by Jeremy Filsell, the choir performs regularly with the period instrument ensemble Concert Royal, and with the Orchestra of St. Luke's as part of its own concert series. The choir's primary raison d'être, however, is to provide music for five choral services each week at St. Thomas Church. Whereas the men of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers, the boy choristers are students of the Saint Thomas Choir School.[7]

In addition to annual performances of Handel's Messiah, concerts at Saint Thomas Church have included requiems by Fauré, Brahms, Mozart, Duruflé, and Howells; Bach's Passions and Mass in B Minor; the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610; a Henry Purcell anniversary concert; Rachmaninoff Vespers; the U.S. premiere of John Tavener's Mass; a concert of American composers featuring works by Bernstein and Copland; a composition by Saint Thomas chorister Daniel Castellanos; the world premiere of Scott Eyerly's Spires; and a concert of works by Benjamin Britten.

In addition, the choir has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe, including performances at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London; Kings College, Cambridge; Windsor; Edinburgh; St. Albans; and the Aldeburgh Festival. In 2004, the choir toured Italy and performed at a Papal Mass at the Vatican. In 2007, the choir performed Bach's Saint Matthew Passion for the opening concert of the Mexico Festival in Mexico City as well as at Saint Thomas Church. In February 2012, the boys of the choir traveled to Dresden to give the premiere of Lera Auerbach's Dresden Requiem with the Dresden Staatskapelle in the Frauenkirche and Semper Oper. Later in 2012, the choir performed in the Thomaskirche at the Bachfest Leipzig, a highlight of their tour to Germany and Copenhagen.

Headmasters of the Choir School[8]

• Clarence Jack Smith, 1919
• Raymond Wallace Gauger, 1920–1922
• Herbert H. Hannan, 1923–1925
• Clair J. Smith, 1926–1927
• Charles Mead Benham, 1928–1942
• The Rev. James O. Carson Jr, 1943–1944
• Leon D. Phillips, 1945–1949
• Henry B. Roney Jr, 1950–1955
• Robert Porter, 1955–1966
• Gordon H. Clem, 1967–1995
• Murray Lawrence, 1995–1997
• Gordon Roland-Adams, 1997–2004
• The Rev. Charles Wallace, 2004-2019
• Amalia Francisco (Interim), 2020-present

Organists and Choirmasters[9]

• T. Tertius Noble, 1913–1940
• T. Frederick Candlyn, 1940–1954
• William Self, 1954–1971
• Gerre Hancock, 1971–2004

Organists and Directors of Music[10]

• John Scott, 2004–2015
• Daniel Hyde, 2016–2019
• Jeremy Filsell, 2019–present

• Gunther Schuller, jazz and classical composer
• Chris Wylde, actor
• Steve Sandvoss, actor

• Escolania de Montserrat, a boarding school for choristers in Spain
• Westminster Abbey Choir School, another school for choristers in England
• Saint Thomas Church (Manhattan)

• Saint Thomas Choir School
• Saint Thomas Church
• Live webcasts of all choral services and further information, including recordings of the choir