The all-male choir consists of 14 choral students and 16 choristers. The choristers are appointed at voice trials, which take place regularly, and are educated at St John’s College School, which is situated at the edge of the College grounds. The alto, tenor and bass parts are taken by choral students who are admitted as undergraduates to the College and who study a variety of subjects. Choral students very often become professional singers and many have been awarded scholarships by the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music.

Apart from its liturgical commitments, the choir gives a number of concerts each year both in the UK and overseas. Recent tours have taken the choir to Australia, South Africa, Canada, the USA, Holland, Belgium, Sweden and Japan.

The choir’s repertoire stretches from the 15^th century to the present day. They have made many recordings and their discography includes many classic recordings under George Guest, as well as the recent very successful English Choral Music series on the Naxos label under Christopher Robinson; the series, including the music of Howells, Britten, Tavener (nominated for a Classical Brit Award) and Rubbra (Gramophone Editor’s Choice April 2001), has sold more than 200,000 copies to date. Annual highlights for the choir include the Advent Carol Service, the Lent Meditation, and Evensong on Ash Wednesday (when Allegri’s Miserere is sung) all of which are broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Many composers have written for the choir, including Tippett, Howells and Langlais; more recently, Francis Grier, Andrew Gant and John Tavener have been commissioned.

Andrew Nethsingha took up his position as Director of Music in September 2007. He is a former Organ Scholar at St. John's and joined St. John's College from Gloucester Cathedral. He continues an extraordinarily distinguished line of Directors which has included George Guest, Christopher Robinson and David Hill.