John Rutter was born in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutter grew up living over the Globe pub on London’s Marylebone Road. He was educated at Highgate School, where fellow pupils included John Tavener and as a chorister there took part in the first (1963) recording of Britten’s War Requiem under the composer’s baton. He then read music at Clare College Cambridge, where he was a member of the choir. While still an undergraduate, he had his first compositions published, including the “Shepherd’s Pipe Carol” which he had written aged 18. He served as director of music at Clare College from 1975 to 1979 and led the choir to international prominence.
In 1981, Rutter founded his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, which he conducts and with which he has made many recordings of sacred choral repertoire (including his own works), particularly under his own label Collegium Records. In 1980, he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians.
Rutter also works as an arranger and editor. As a young man, he collaborated with Sir David Willcocks on five volumes of the extraordinarily successful Carols for Choirs anthology series.From 1985 to 1992, Rutter suffered severely from ME, or chronic fatigue syndrome, which restricted his output; after 1985, he stopped writing music on commission, as he was unable to guarantee meeting deadlines.
In 1996, the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music. In 2008, he was made an honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple while playing a significant role in the 2008 Temple Festival. He was inducted as a National Patron of Delta Omicron an international professional music fraternity in 1985. Rutter is also a Vice-President of the Joyful Company of Singers, President of The Bach Choir, and President of the Association of British Choral Directors (ABCD).
Rutter’s compositions are chiefly choral, and include Christmas carols, anthems and extended works such as the Gloria, the Requiem and the Magnificant. The world premiere of Rutter’s Requiem (1985), and of his authoritative edition of Fauré’s Requiem, took place with the Fox Valley Festival Chorus, in Illinois. In 2002, his setting of Psalm 150, commissioned for the Queen’s Golden Golden Jubilee, was performed at the Jubilee thanksgiving service in St. Paul’s Catherdral, London. Similarly, he was commissioned to write a new anthem, “This is the day”, for the Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011, performed at Westminster Abbey during the service.
