About the Choir

Sanderstead Singers was formed in 1991 by Fred Irvine to sing the daily services at Salisbury Cathedral for a week that summer. Its first 40 members were mainly former members of the choir of All Saints’, Sanderstead, in Surrey.

The choir didn’t expect to carry on beyond that week, but it has kept growing ever since. It has now sung at 24 cathedrals and abbeys, some of them several times. You can see them all on our Visits page.

Choir camp

Most years the choir spends a week, usually in August, as the visiting choir at a cathedral, singing Evensong each day and the Sunday Eucharist. We call this our choir camp. Thursday is traditionally our “dumb day”, when the choir takes a day off to relax and explore the area. Alongside the summer residency we sing at one-off services during the year, including regular visits to St Paul’s Cathedral.

Our repertoire

The choir has an extensive repertoire, ranging from the 16th century to the present day. Over the years we have sung music by more than 150 composers.

Through the years

The choir has historic links with St Mary’s Church, Sanderstead, where Fred Irvine was Director of Music for more than 20 years. Since 1999 there has also been a strong link with St Mary’s Church Choir in Merton.

A lot has changed since 1991, but a good number of the original members still sing with the choir, now joined by their sons and daughters (and even grandchildren). We have always encouraged younger members: many of our singers started out as Sanderstead Singers trebles. Our Director, Dan Soper, was one of the original trebles in 1991.

After 28 years, Fred stepped down as choirmaster following our visit to Ely Cathedral in 2019, and Dan became Director in 2020. Find out more on our Who’s Who page.

Join us

If you’d like to sing with the choir, please get in touch. We expect members to be able to read music and to have a love of, and enthusiasm for, quality church music.