About Us (in Five Minutes)

History

Canterbury Choral Society’s mission is to present live choral works with orchestra, in sacred spaces and beyond. Canterbury’s concerts and activities bring together professional, emerging, avocational and student musicians with audiences. Our goal is to inspire deep appreciation and knowledge of live choral music from the canon as well as modern and commissioned works. 

On October 10, 2025, Canterbury Choral Society was recognized with the National Medal of Fine Arts for promoting and advocating for children in the performing arts. This annual award was conferred by the Motif Awards International Selection Committee in recognition for CCS’s  work “as advocates for the arts and as ambassadors of humanity through music.”

The concept of presenting masterful choral works with full orchestrations was entirely innovative and untried when the group began; its 75-year-long success and commitment to its original mission is unparalleled in New York City. Canterbury was founded in 1952 by Charles Dodsley Walker, an extraordinary musician, organist, and conductor, Canterbury's concerts bring together a unique combination of volunteer and professional musicians. In 2014, Maestro Walker selected Jonathan De Vries, a longtime collaborator with Canterbury Choral Society and well-respected conductor and music educator, as his successor. After Walker’s death in 2015, the Board of Directors named Mr. De Vries as the new Artistic Director and Conductor.

Canterbury Choral Society (CCS), had initially been a musical outreach project of Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, where Mr. Walker served as organist and music director. It was created to bring the dimension of full instrumental accompaniment to the finest choral music. With two or three major concerts per season, the Canterbury Chorus is accompanied by professional instrumentalists, organists and soloists.

Since its founding, periodic benefit performances at Carnegie Hall or Avery Fisher Hall have featured an expanded adult ensemble, plus local children’s choirs, and more than 3,000 children have sung with the chorus during benefit concerts, many of them participating in productions of Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, the monumental “Symphony of a Thousand.” Canterbury has performed over 200 formal concerts and Canterbury singers have participated in scores of theater productions, ceremonies and services throughout the metropolitan region. Performances have included Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, St. Matthew Passion, and Mass in B minor; Duke Ellington’s Second Sacred Concert; Rollo Dilworth’s Bound for Glory (premiere); Handel’s Saul and Messiah; Mozart’s Exultate, Jubilate (K165) and Missa da Requiem; Ariani’s Oratorio de San Francesco (revival); Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem; Chopin’s Concerto, No. 2; Royal Compositions - I was glad when they said unto Me (Parry), This is the Day (Rutter); Crown Imperial (Walton), Like as the Hart (Howells), and Let all the people praise thee (Mathias).

Other performances include Dvorak’s Mass in D Major-Luzany Mass; Mahler’s Eighth Symphony; Mendelssohn’s Elijah; Britten’s Festival Te Deum; Mathias’ Te Deum, Lully’s Te Deum, Stanford’s Laudamus in B-flat; Haydn’s Te Deum in C and “Lord Nelson” Mass; Williams’ Te Deum in G; Poulenc’s Gloria; Duruflé’s Requiem; Schubert’s Mass in E flat; Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in C minor, Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols; Hodie’s A Christmas Cantata; Haydn’s Empress Maria Therese Te Deum; Holst’s The Hymn of Jesus; Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, (K33g).

Church of the Heavenly Rest is an Episcopal church, a soaring, sacred space located on Fifth Avenue at 90th Street in Manhattan's Carnegie Hill neighborhood. Canterbury’s regular rehearsals and performances are held here and help to amplify the outreach of this Upper East Side church, with whom the Choral Society maintains a special and treasured relationship.

Organizational Structure

Canterbury Choral Society reached administrative independence from the Church of the Heavenly Rest, its original sponsor, in 1988, when it achieved 501(c)(3) status. Today, CCS is a not-for-profit arts association with an independent Board of Directors and Officers, who hold regular meetings to oversee the short-range and long-range stability of the organization.

Its by-laws have been drafted in accordance with New York State requirements, and end-of-year meetings include standard reports as well as a Conductor’s Report, which features a survey of the past season's concerts and an overview of the next season's planned performances. An additional objective remains: to encourage the camaraderie that is a hallmark of Canterbury Choral Society.  While friendships, socializing, and laughter remain a key component of the annual end-of-season meetings, these meetings are not legally concluded without an official presentation of the business component of the agenda. 

Board of Directors and Officers 2026-2027

Officers are elected for one-year terms during the annual meeting, and board members serve for a three-year term.