St Salvator’s Chapel Choir is the flagship choir of the University of St Andrews. A mixed-voice ensemble of around 25 students, its history extends back to the founding of the University in the early fifteenth century, when students were obliged to sing in the University’s chapel. These choristers were referred to as the ‘Choristi Sanctiandree’.

Today, under the direction of Claire Innes-Hopkins, the choir performs a broad repertoire spanning the six centuries of the University’s history. In addition to three sung services each week and extensive ceremonial duties, the choir enjoys a busy schedule of concerts, international tours and broadcasts on radio and TV, as well as appearances at international festivals including the Thüringer Bachwochen (Germany), Haarlem Koorbiennale and Orgelfestival Holland (The Netherlands) from where they were broadcast on Dutch national radio. Other tours have featured performances at Washington National Cathedral and Princeton University (USA) and with renowned baritone Peter Harvey in Sweden. In 2019 and 2023 the choir toured throughout France including concerts in Burgundy, Champagne, Bourges Cathedral, the Alsace, Metz, Marseille and the Cathedral of Aix-en-Provence. In 2024, the choir was heard in concert with the outstanding Luxembourg period instrument group, L’Ensemble de la Chapelle du Saint-Marc, in music by Bach, Vivaldi and Durante in Metz and Luxembourg, directed by Prof Vincent Bernhardt.

Recordings on the University’s own internationally distributed CD label have included Salvator Mundi charting 100 years of English church music after Purcell, Bach and the Stile Antico, charting the evolution of the Credo from Bach’s Mass in B minor via works known to, and performed by, Bach during its composition and Annunciations featuring music by James MacMillan and six new works commissioned for the choir as part of the University’s TheoArtistry project.

The choir also made the first recording under studio conditions of Sigismund von Neukomm’s Requiem in C minor, written for the Congress of Vienna in 1815. This was a collaboration with the Wallace Collection who performed on historic brass instruments. The choir’s most recent CD for Christmas, The Tyger and the Lamb, was released in October, 2022.

There are many other choirs at the University of St Andrews; for more information on singing and music generally at the University, please click here.

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