The London Adventist Chorale was formed in 1981, to bring together and develop the latent talents of singers from various Seventh-day Adventist Churches. Its current principal conductor is Ken Burton, who has conducted the choir for over two decades.
The choir’s first artistic director was the late John Tolman, who laid out the vision for the choir: high-standard performance of varied and challenging sacred repertoire, with a heavy leaning toward a cappella music. Fundamental to the original vision was that the choir would be of a standard to “stand before kings and queens”, a statement borrowed from a Bible verse.
Throughout its years, under several directors including Derek Hoyte and Tina Brooks, this dream has been realised; the choir has made a strong impact on the choral world internationally through its moving performances, combining, as one music critic put it, “discipline with fervour”. Its repertoire over the years has included music in Hebrew, African-American Spirituals, close harmony, and Western choral music from Renaissance through to new commissions.
The Chorale’s performances have been experienced by tens of millions world-wide on stage, screen, recordings and radio appearances. The choir has performed in most of the UK’s major performance venues. Among the many notable venues and performance are Blenheim Palace in the presence of former US President Bill Clinton, Buckingham Palace on the occasion of Her Majesty the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Toronto’s Sky Dome before an audience of seventy thousand, and BBC Proms concerts. Its performances very often receive long standing ovations, and one Times reviewer was so taken aback, he wrote in the newspaper that he had found “the perfect choir”.
In 1994, the choir won the prestigious “Choir of The Year” title, and was awarded BBC UK Gospel Choir of the Year by the BBC a year later. Even to the present day, many of the UK’s choral directors have verbally stated that the London Adventist Chorale has had a profound effect and influence on the UK choral scene. By way of example, it is not uncommon to see the inclusion of African-American Spirituals – a genre which has been almost unilaterally preserved in the UK by the Chorale – on choral programmes and in competition repertoire. The choir has worked in collaboration with a number of notable artists including Bryn Terfel CBE, Sir Willard White, Larnelle Harris, Wynton Marsalis, Wilhelmenia Fernandez and Lesley Garrett.
The choir performs yearly Christmas concerts at the Clonter Opera Theatre and celebrity chef Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons. It has also been involved with the Kijani Kenya Trust which raises funds for HIV,Aids and Conservation projects in Kenya, through a high-calibre music festival and ongoing education programme.
Recordings to date include the debut album “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”, “Deep River”, “Steal Away” (EMI), and “Live In Australia”.
Ken Burton started his musical training at a very young age, playing piano, descant and alto recorder, violin and steel pans in his primary school and at church. He then entered Trinity School, with its acclaimed boys choir, for whom he played on a number of occasions. After his schooling, Ken pursued his BMus degree at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, and undertook professional development studies in music education, specialising in vocal coaching.
Steve Roud is a retired Local History Librarian and now a freelance writer and researcher specialising in the social history of traditional song and other folkloric topics. His publications include The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, The Lore of the Playground, The English Year, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. He is also the creator of the internationally-used Folk Song Index online database.
Gerard Klaassens lives in Limburg, in the South of Holland. He has a B.Ed. in Music Education and has studied solo singing. Since 1993 he has attended all the International Kodâly Seminars at the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Kecskemét, Hungary where he has attended many solo singing courses led by Dr.János Klézli and Roland Hadju.
The BKA commissioned Bob Chilcott to write a new choral piece for children called “A Tree of Song” for the 
Borbála Szirányi graduated in music education and choral conducting at the Liszt Academy of Music in 1997. In her final academic year, she participated in Professor Peter Erdei’s conducting master course in Oxford.
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