The Temple Church Choir gives the world premiere recording of Nico Muhly’s Our present charter – a brand new four-movement work commissioned by the choir to celebrate 800 years since the sealing of the Magna Carta. Directed by Roger Sayer and featuring organist Greg Morris, the recording also features choral works by Parry, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Bairstow, Tavener and Haydn.

The Temple Church was built by the Knights Templar. The Round Church was consecrated in 1185 and the Chancel dates from the 1230s. In 1308, the Temple Church contained ‘two pairs of organs’ and, in the vestry, ‘twenty-eight choir copes and four little copes for the choristers.’

700 years later, the Temple Church still resounds to music being made to the glory of God. The Temple Church Choir and the fine Harrison & Harrison organ can also be heard in concert, along with two professional ensembles based at the church: The Temple Singers and The Temple Players. In November 2014 the choir visited Washington DC for the celebration of the Magna Carta Exhibition at the Library of Congress. The choir sang twice at the Library itself, in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal (there in her capacity as Inner Temple’s Royal Bencher), and then in the Supreme Court. Classic FM will broadcast the choir’s concert here on Thursday 21 May 2015 and the choir tour Holland in July 2015, to include a concert in the International Court of Justice.