Andrew Gant

Why does church music remain so popular? How does it so frequently top the classical charts and why is the BBC’s Choral Evensong the longest-running radio series ever? Join Andrew Gant as he journey’s through English church music, from its Anglo-Saxon origins to the present day.

Accompanied by live music, and in the spectacular surroundings of The Chapel Royal, Andrew Gant will demonstrate how England’s church music follows the contours of its past and is the soundtrack of its changing politics and culture. This elegant history covers the mysteries of the Mass, the decorum of the Restoration anthem and styles from stern Puritanism to Victorian bombast, right up to the fractured worlds of the twentieth century as heard in the music of Vaughan Williams and Britten.

Andrew Gant is a composer, choirmaster, church musician, university teacher and writer. He has directed many leading choirs including The Guards’ Chapel, Worcester College Oxford, and Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal. He lectures in music at St Peter’s College in Oxford, where he lives with his wife and their three children.