Ralph Allwood

Ralph Allwood MBE DMus was for 26 years Director of Music at Eton College and is now a freelance choral director, educator and conductor, making over 40 live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. He is the founder and director of the Rodolfus (ex-Eton) Choral Courses and co-founder of the Junior Choral Courses, boasting over 10,000 students since 1980. His Rodolfus Choir has produced over 20 CDs since he founded it in 1982. Ralph is co-founder and conductor of several educational initiatives including Inner Voices, the National Youth Music Theatre and the Pimlico Musical Foundation. He is also Director of Chapel Music at Queens’ College Chapel, Cambridge, Director of the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir and an Honorary Fellow of University College, Durham. In 2017, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented him with the Thomas Cranmer Award for Music and Worship. During the coronavirus pandemic, Ralph conducted an online Evensong with an ensemble of over 250 singers, with contributions from Stephen Fry, Simon Russell Beale, Alexander Armstrong and Richard Cole.