Interview, John Robinson takes carols from Cambridge to Cambridge

The St Paul's Choir School in Cambridge, Massachusetts has been described as "not so much a school with a choir, as a choir with a school" – strongly influenced by the English cathedral tradition of choral singing. It's therefore a perfect fit that their director of music, John Robinson, should have cut his teeth on this music (at Hereford, Canterbury, and St John's College Cambridge) before taking up the reins there.

The choir's debut disc is a collection of Christmas classics in this decidedly English vein; I asked John Robinson about the choices of repertoire, and about his experience of bringing the English choral tradition to America.

This is an overwhelmingly British, or at any rate English, disc – you’re clearly very keen on ‘exporting’ the English choral tradition to the USA. What would you say to those who might wonder why you’ve steered clear of home-grown American composers such as Eric Whitacre or Mack Wilberg?

A great question, thanks for asking! I would say that with this exciting premiere recording, we are planting our feet firmly in the history of Christmas repertoire in order to draw attention to the great beauty and depth of this music, alive today as ever it was, sung by a choir of men and boys in the way much of it would have been originally heard. This explains the presence of Latin motets and Plainsong, as well as real Christmas ‘Classics’ like the Willcocks arrangements- clearly conceived with the sound of boys in his ears. Wonderful as the music of Whitacre certainly is, we feel that in making our debut recording, we wanted to weight things towards beautiful music written for boys' voices, some of which people might already know. There is plenty of time in the future to work on more music by American composers, as well as some of the less well-known works by European composers, both of which directions we look forward to exploring.

Your own pedigree, indeed, is decidedly English, with a string of cathedral posts behind you; when you were appointed to St Paul’s, did you find yourself having to adapt to a radically different musical tradition?

The tradition at St. Paul’s had always aimed at being a part of the European Cathedral/Choir School culture, and so what I found was certainly aiming at what I was used to. It was my great joy to be able to help the Choir School to achieve this through the actual ‘techniques’ used by English Cathedral and Collegiate choirs. The big secret is that on the whole they never use ‘techniques’ as construed by American choirs, so I had some adjusting to do. Now we are in a much better place where singing fine repertoire is one of our greatest didactic aids. Exposing the boys to great music is really most of the way to training them; I find they have great instincts and intrinsically recognise quality when they hear it. Techniques often get in the way of that, especially when the techniques introduce symbols which are outside of pre-existing notation. Reading music is enough of a challenge without making things harder by imposing symbols and theories on top of what is already there.

Perhaps an inevitable question for a CD of Christmas choral favourites… What do you think sets this album apart from the others that already exist (and whose ranks swell each year)?

This is the debut professional recording by a Boys' Catholic Choir School in America (we are the only one!). This makes it an important historic recording. I also think that it is the ultimate evidence that a Choral tradition is alive and well in America, which is great for culture. The recording contains new arrangements, descants and compositions. Wonderful as the classic descants of David Willcocks always are, I always enjoy hearing different ideas and takes on these Christmas hymns, so I’m hopeful that this will inspire people to keep writing more.

Following this international debut, do you have any other recording projects lined up with the choir for the future?

We could not have been more happy and honoured to work with the amazing people at AimHigher Recordings, who have gone above and beyond in every possible respect. They are people with an incredible mission, and an equally impressive grasp of how things work in the recording industry. We also have greatly enjoyed working with the world-renowned Decca/Universal Music Classics and their team of consummate professionals in the industry. The Choir School has already benefited in many different ways from this first recording and all of the various ways our music has reached beyond Harvard Square. So watch this space for more information!