RCO welcomes John Rutter knighthood

The Royal College of Organists (RCO) has welcomed the award of a knighthood to Dr John Rutter CBE in the King’s Birthday Honours, for services to music.

Sir John was awarded the RCO Medal in 2014 in recognition of his distinguished achievement in arrangement, composition and conducting.

Sir John wrote his first published compositions and conducted his first recording while studying music at Clare College, Cambridge. His compositional career has embraced both large- and small-scale choral works, orchestral and instrumental pieces, a piano concerto, two children’s operas, music for television, and specialist writing for such groups as the King’s Singers. His larger choral works—Gloria (1974), Requiem (1985), Magnificat (1990), Psalmfest (1993), and Mass of the Children (2003)—have been performed many times in Britain, North America, and elsewhere. He co-edited four volumes in the Carols for Choirs series with Sir David Willcocks, and, more recently, has edited the first two volumes in the Oxford Choral Classics series.

Sir John formed the Cambridge Singers as a professional chamber choir primarily dedicated to recording. In 1980, he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians. In 1996, the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music. He was honoured in the 2007 Queen’s New Year Honours List, being awarded a CBE for services to music.

He composed a version of Psalm 150 for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, and was commissioned to write a new anthem for the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton. The first two choral items sung at Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee national service of thanksgiving in June 2022, and six of the pieces performed at the coronation of King Charles, were arrangements by him.

Caption: Sir John Rutter receiving the RCO Medal from RCO President Catherine Ennis in 2014.