The Cathedral Choir of the Risen Christ – A History in three parts
Founded in the year of Singapore’s independence, the Cathedral Choir of the Risen Christ is the principal choir serving at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, the seat of the Archbishop of the Diocese of Singapore. With an extensive repertoire spanning magnificent choral polyphony to humble hymns, its mission is to witness to the splendour and beauty of Catholic liturgy through the return of reverent worship in the Mass.
While the Choir exists primarily to serve the 1030AM High Mass on Sundays at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, its dedication to excellence in sacred music has led it from humble beginnings in the Church of St Michael’s to sing for popes, presidents and the public alike, in places as varied as St Peter’s Square to Disneyland. Its main choral concerts are anchored by the liturgical year, most famously its annual Christmas Concert which it has put up every year since 1973.
Part I: humble beginnings (1965 – 70)
Our Founder Director, Peter Low began his long association with sacred music in 1956 at the Church of Sts. Peter & Paul under the tutelage of the French missionary, Rev. Fr Jean Baptiste Itcaina (of the Missions Etrangeres de Paris), from whom he learnt Gregorian chant. When Fr. Itcaina returned to France in 1960, Peter joined the Choir at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd under the director of its Choir mistress, Fay Holmberg.
In 1965, he left to join the Minor Seminary and established a Youth Choir at the Church of St. Michael to sing for the Christmas Midnight Mass as part of his formational training. His collaborator at the time was John Joseph Fenelon, now parish priest at the Church of St Teresa’s.
Part II: expansion and growth
1970 marks the year the Choir took on its distinctive form. The 30-member Youth Choir from St Michael’s made the move to the Church of the Risen Christ in Toa Payoh, whose name it still bears today. Indeed, at the time the town of Toa Payoh became synonymous with the Risen Christ Choir. The Choir’s membership grew to 80 members and was further augmented in 1971 by another 80-member Junior Choir (ages 8-16).
This phase saw the Choir flourish both locally and internationally under Peter’s direction. At home, it was involved in major national events and initiatives such as the 25th Anniversary celebrations of Singapore’s independence and the official launch of the MRT by then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Locally, Peter led the Choir to contribute to the betterment of the community, through concerts in aid of welfare homes, school building projects, and for beneficiaries such as the Singapore Community Chest and the National Kidney Foundation.
Internationally, the Choir travelled abroad to much acclaim. In 1978 the Junior Choir’s performance at the prestigious Llangollen International Eisteddfod (singing festival) in North Wales earned them a score just six marks shy of the winning team, in a field of 38 choirs. Under the official name of the “Little Ambassadors of Singapore” and wearing SIA livery, the Choir toured the US and sang at the Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim and on the Merv Griffin Show (of Wheel of Fortune fame) in Los Angeles. The Choir also represented Singapore at the 400th Anniversary Celebrations of the City of Westminster in London (1985), as well as at an International Concert for Peace in Tel Aviv (1995). Special love was also paid by the Choir to pilgrimage sites of great devotion, such as at Lourdes, as well as major such as the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, and St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where it has sung before Pope St. John Paul II twice.
This was also a productive period where the Choir cut seven albums with the WEA label, spanning a range of genres, from folk songs to Christmas carols. It also saw the initiation of a now much-loved tradition carried strongly to the present day: the Choir’s annual Christmas Concert. Begun in 1973 under the name of “Yuletidings”, crowd favourites such as Silent Night would be found side by side with concert pieces like And the Glory of the Lord by Handel.
Part III: present life at the Mother Church
After 32 years of service in the Church of the Risen Christ, in 2002 the Choir was installed as the principal Choir at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd and renamed “Cathedral Choir of the Risen Christ” with Peter as Choral and Music Director. It retained the name of Cathedral Choir of the Risen Christ in order to continue using the Maroon standard blessed by Pope St. John Paul II in 1998. Later in 2012 it added a white standard, blessed by Pope Benedict XVI in a choral pilgrimage of Rome.
This latest phase of life finds its impetus in upholding a fitting standard of liturgical music deserving of the mother church in Singapore. This period saw the Choir’s involvement in many major diocesan celebrations, notably the Episcopal Ordination of Archbishop William Goh in 2013, the Archdiocesan Requiem Mass for the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew in 2015, and the re-dedication of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in 2016 after its two-year long restoration.
Recorded music in this period also took on a more liturgical character, with our Choral Director setting to music the more than 180 responsorial Psalms and canticles for the 3-year Sunday liturgical cycle and other Holy Days of obligation in two volumes of albums (2006; 2019).
Notable trips in this period were a re-treading of former pilgrimage sites: most notably Rome (2012), where the Choir also sang for Pope Benedict XVI, and Israel (2019), under the official endorsement of the Israeli embassy and bearing the official emblem for the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Singapore.
Now in the 50th year of its founding since its birth in 1970 at the Church of the Risen Christ, the Choir offers its prayers of thanksgiving to God for the decades of fruitful service in His Name and also prayers of hope for further decades of continued service to come.