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Britain's Cambridge Singers, prolific and commercially successful, are among the best-known choral ensembles of the contemporary era. They were founded by composer John Rutter primarily as a vehicle for recording his music, although the group has also performed other music.

Rutter established the Cambridge Singers in 1981, drawing on the membership of the Clare College Choir at Cambridge University, where he had been the director from 1975 to 1979. He augmented this core with other singers who had been choral scholars at major British universities. Although the Cambridge Singers have given live performances, Rutter intended them as a recording ensemble, and he formed Collegium Records in 1984 as a vehicle for recordings of the group. At the time, small independent labels devoted to choral music were still fairly rare. The debut Cambridge Singers recording, featuring Fauré's Requiem, was a critical success. Also in 1984, Rutter and the Cambridge Singers issued Gloria: The Sacred Music of John Rutter (reissued in 2005), and as Rutter's popularity grew, with choral music at the center of his output, it was the Cambridge Singers who were heard on the recordings that made him internationally famous. The group has spawned several impressive solo vocal careers, including those of tenor Mark Padmore and baritone Gerald Finley.

The Cambridge Singers have recorded various works not by Rutter, both with Rutter and with others as conductor; in 2016 they were heard on a Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recording of Gustav Holst's The Planets, conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes. They have even crossed into the pop sphere with appearances on several albums by the electronic ensemble Mannheim Steamroller. The Cambridge Singers have been extremely prolific, often releasing two or three albums per year in the 1990s and 2000s decades. They also released a new recording of Rutter's Requiem, paired with a new work, Visions, in 2016. ~ James Manheim

John Rutter is one of England's best-known composers of the late 20th century, as well as a widely respected choral conductor, music scholar, and editor. While his choral works, both small and large -- including the Gloria (1974), Magnificat (1990), Requiem (1985), Psalmfest (1993), and Mass of the Children (2003) -- are the most familiar, he has written instrumental works, including a piano concerto; two children's operas; and music for television. Rutter also composed specially for such groups as the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the King's Singers.

He began his musical career as a member of the Highgate School chorus, continued to study organ, and went on to Cambridge University, where he studied at Clare College. At the age of 30, in 1975, he returned to Clare, where he served as director of music. In 1979, however, he left the position in order to give more attention to composing and conducting. He still contributed to the study of choral music, acting as an editor on the Carols for Choirs series along with Sir David Willcocks and on the Opera Choruses (1995) and European Sacred Music (1996) volumes of the Oxford Choral Classics series. He formed the Cambridge Singers in 1981, primarily to record his and others' music, and again he left off leadership of the group in order to concentrate on composing and conducting. He was made an honorary fellow by Westminster Choir College, Princeton in 1980, and a fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians in 1988. In 1996, he was awarded a Lambeth Doctorate of Music by the Archbishop of Canterbury for his services to church music. In addition to all of these activities, he manages the Collegium Records label, largely devoted to his own music. He continues to guest conduct and lecture around the world. He was awarded a CBE for his services to music in the 2007 Queen's New Year Honours List. In 2016, Rutter wrote Visions for violin, treble choir, harp, and strings, and conducted its premiere along with his Requiem that year on Collegium Records. In the midst of the 2020 coronavirus lockdowns, Rutter transcribed eight of his choral works and eight carols for piano, bringing in longtime friend Wayne Marshall to record The Piano Collection in isolation, with Rutter producing from his England home.

Musically his works show very distinct influences from the past. He has a strong sense of the English musical traditions, and some of the more significant English musical influences on his work include Ralph Vaughn Williams, William Walton, and Benjamin Britten. Non-English influences include Fauré, Gregorian chant, and Bach. His Suite Antique is a direct tribute to the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, written for the same instruments and in the same style. His music's immediate accessibility, being both tuneful and expressive, and its wide general appeal, have earned him a place in the English musical tradition, and while he is most popular in England and the United States, his music is performed worldwide, particularly by church choirs. ~ TiVo Staff