Vasari Singers

Recognized as one of Britain's premier small vocal ensembles, the Vasari Singers sustain a demanding calendar of appearances across cathedrals, concert halls, and broadcast outlets. Their broad repertoire centers especially on the commissioning and performance of new music.

Jeremy Backhouse, once a boy chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and later an editor at EMI Classics and Boosey & Hawkes, established the group in 1980. He has continued as its sole director, a role whose continuity has helped shape the ensemble's distinctive blend and intimacy. A Sainsbury's-sponsored Choir of the Year award in 1988 introduced the singers to wider listeners. Beyond appearances at the BBC Proms and other prominent stages, they have sung in major cathedrals such as Canterbury, Gloucester, Liverpool, and Ripon, and have served residencies at Canterbury and additional sites. Broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM complement their schedule, which also includes benefit concerts, among them an annual event for the Michael Varah Foundation.

Contemporary scores have featured in their programs since the outset, with the pace of new commissions accelerating markedly. Since 2000 the singers have ordered more than twenty works from British composers, including Gabriel Jackson's Requiem of 2008; ten of these pieces received their first performances during a single concert at St. John's, Smith Square in 2005.

Roughly thirty recordings, stretching back to the early 1990s, document the choir's activity on the Guild, Signum, and Naxos labels, among others, spanning Renaissance pieces to present-day scores. Certain projects, such as the 2003 release Deep Purple: Close Harmony Arrangements, highlight the group's technical prowess. The 2005 album Anthems for the 21st Century drew on its extensive holdings of recent British music. To mark its fortieth anniversary in 2020, the ensemble issued Heaven Full of Stars, a collection of sacred works evoking celestial themes and one of several thematically focused recordings the singers have produced.