Join us for a memorable evening celebrating the remarkable sound of the restored organ in the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul.

Following its careful restoration, the magnificent 235-year-old organ continues to resonate once more within the Chapel, brought back to life thanks to the generosity of our supporters. This concert offers a special opportunity to experience its rich and powerful sound in this historic setting.

Originally installed in 1789 by Samuel Green, the King’s organ maker, the instrument is thought to be the largest of Green’s organs still in its original position. It is widely recognised by musicologists and historians for its exceptional historical and musical significance.

Music will be performed by the Chapel Choir of Trinity Laban, with Alexander Knight at the organ.

The Queen Mary Undercroft Bar will be open during the interval, with drinks available to purchase.

All profits from this event support the charitable work of the Old Royal Naval College, helping us to preserve and protect our historic site, including projects such as the restoration of this organ.

This concert has been made possible thanks to philanthropic support.

Musical programme

• Beati quorum via – Stanford
• Thou must leave thy lowly dwellings- Berlioz
• Ave Maria – Bruckner
• A Gaelic Blessing – Rutter
• Take him, Earth, for Cherishing – Howells
• Evening Hymn – Balfour Gardiner
• Steal Away – spiritual arr Michael Tippett
• Allegri Miserere
• Blessed city, Heavenly Salem – Bairstow
• Thou O God art praised in Sion – Malcolm Boyle
• I saw a hew Heaven – Jonathan Dove
• Prelude and Fugue in C major (BWV 547) – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Gerald Finzi (1901-56) Eclogue (arr. Robert Gower, b. 1952)

About the organist

Alexander Knight is a versatile musician, combining his freelance music career alongside his posts as Organist of the Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Accompanist for Petros Singers, and Musical Director for the Treble Chefs.

Alex read Music at Cambridge University and held an organ scholarship at Queens’ College. With the Queens’ College Choir he toured around the UK and internationally, and featured on their CD ‘For the Wings of a Dove’.

During his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music, Alex achieved an ‘outstanding’ distinction mark and received the Harold Darke Memorial Prize for organ. He studied organ with David Graham, Andrew Dewar and Martin Ford, and piano with Nigel Clayton. While studying at the RCM, he was awarded his Fellowship Diploma from the Royal College of Organists.

Alex previously held organ scholarships at St Paul’s and Southwark Cathedrals, and the positions of Director of Music and Organist at St Mary Magdalene, Richmond (2016-2023) and as Accompanist and subsequently Musical Director of the Canbury Singers (2018-2023). Alex is an active recitalist, performing solo recitals at venues including St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and Westminster Cathedral.

Notable highlights include conducting Vaughan Williams’s ‘Dona nobis pacem’ and ‘Five Mystical Songs’ with the Prince Consort Sinfonia and Canbury Singers, accompanying a BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong broadcast with the Old Royal Naval College Chapel Choir, and performing at Maggie’s Charity Carol Concert in the presence of the Queen Consort. Alongside Alex’s classical work, he is a live and session musician and performs with the band The New Immigrants.

Ralph Allwood MBE, Musical Director

Ralph Allwood MBE DMus was for 26 years Director of Music at Eton College and is now a freelance choral director, teacher and conductor. He is the Director of the Rodolfus (ex-Eton) Choral Courses, which he founded in 1980. He co-founded the Junior Choral Courses in 2012. Twelve thousand 8 to 20 year-olds have since been students on courses and they have now expanded to cater for adults. In recent years he has launched courses in Texas, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The Rodolfus Choir has produced over 20 CDs since he founded it in 1982.

Ralph is co-founder and conductor of Inner Voices, made up of singers from state schools in London. He is also a Supervisor for harmony in Cambridge, Director of the only conservatoire chapel choir in the world, the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir and an Honorary Fellow of University College, Durham.  He is Chair of the Choral Evensong Trust and Patron of the Choir of the Earth.

Ralph has conducted choirs for over 40 broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. He has composed much music for Extreme Music Ltd and PDM, heard worldwide on radio, films and television. He is co-founder, with the Vicar of St. Gabriel’s, of the Pimlico Musical Foundation.

In 2017, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented him with the Thomas Cranmer Award for his contribution to Music and Worship.