John Alldis

John Alldis (10 August 1929 – 20 December 2010) was an English chorus-master and conductor.

After his education at Felsted, Alldis studied as a choral scholar under Boris Ord at King's College, Cambridge, from 1949 to 1952.

After leaving Cambridge University, Alldis quickly became highly regarded as a choral conductor. In 1966, the London Symphony Orchestra engaged him to form and direct its first standing choral group. However, he switched to the London Philharmonic Choir in 1969, with which he remained until 1982, preparing choruses for many celebrated performances with Adrian Boult, Otto Klemperer, Leopold Stokowski, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Karl Richter, Georg Solti, and Zubin Mehta.

In 1962, Alldis founded the professional, 16-member John Alldis Choir, which launched itself with the world premiere of Alexander Goehr's A Little Cantata of Proverbs. Contemporary music figured importantly in its repertory, with first performances of works by Malcolm Williamson, Richard Rodney Bennett and Harrison Birtwistle, many of which were captured on the Argo label. In 1967, he prepared the John Alldis Choir for the first European performance of Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles, conducted by Pierre Boulez. The choir's 1972 recording of Justin Connolly's Verse, Op. 7b, was re-released in 2008 on the Lyrita label. The choir also participated in many opera recordings for Decca and RCA, featuring artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Janet Baker, Joan Sutherland and Kiri Te Kanawa.

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