About the Paris Choral Society

Paris Choral Society

For more than a quarter-century, the Paris Choral Society has delighted international audiences with outstanding performances of choral masterworks acclaimed in Paris and beyond.

Lifted by one hundred voices accompanied by professional soloists and orchestras, Paris Choral Society programs draw on celebrated requiems and masses by Mozart, Handel, Beethoven, Verdi, Haydn, Brahms, Bach, Faure and Mendelssohn, to name a few, and the finest in modern choral works by Carl Orff, Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Maurice Durufle, with occasional forays into George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, American hymns and spirituals, operatic favorites, and the recent works of women composers.

The chorale is unique in Paris, too, for its membership, which the New York Times once described as “unpaid but professional-level.” Its singers are French- and English-speaking, of all ages and backgrounds, and competition at auditions can be lively. All are committed to a spirit of musical excellence.

The Paris Choral Society is closely linked to the American Cathedral in Paris. The 1886 neo-Gothic church on avenue George V has been home to PCS since its founding, by volunteers, in 1994 under the leadership and baton of the former Canon for Music, Edward Tipton and then led between 2011 and 2024 by Zachary Ullery, the Canon for Music and Precentor. Rehearsals are held there weekly, as are most of the concerts – although PCS has performed at churches inSaint-Germain-des-Prés, Notre- Dame d’Auteuil, Saint-Eustache, in Les Halles area (St. Eustache) and Ile Saint-Louis-en-l’Ile as well.

In addition to three major programmes every year, PCS is best known in Paris for its Messiah sing-along during Advent. Every Cathedral pew is full as the audience itself performs selections from Handel’s best-known work in alternation with professional soloists. This has been a popular item on the Paris seasonal calendar for more than a generation. To find out more about our forthcoming performances, do check out our concerts page.

In 2019, the PCS performed its first choral premiere, the Stabat Mater, whose American composer, Richard Burchard, worked closely with the chorale, maestro Ullery, and accompanist Andrew Dewar in perfecting the work for its first world performances. You can learn more about the performance in this video.

In April 2022, the Paris Choral Society made a unique recording of Eric Whitacre’s “Sainte-Chapelle” in the famous Parisian chapel itself. You can watch the recording here:

Paris Choral Society members also participate in music festivals and special concerts, including the annual Paris Fête de la Musique, at a Nuit Blanche event, a concert with a visiting Norwegian orchestra and choir celebrating Norway’s centennial, an international choral competition in Prague, a concert on Radio France, and Christmas “flash mobs” at Paris department stores.

Since its founding, the Paris Choral Society has been led by volunteers. A working board of directors, in conjunction with the Musical Director, is responsible for the management of PCS, and all members perform a range of duties in preparation for four concerts a year. Paris Choral Society activities are made possible through membership fees and ticket sales, both of them modestly priced, and through generous donations from inside and outside PCS.

Interim Music Director

Hailing from Maldon in Essex, Lewis graduated from the University of Oxford in 2020. For three years he was an academical clerk in the Choir of New College where he read Music. Whilst at New College, he studied singing with Bronwen Mills and participated in masterclasses with the renowned countertenor, Andreas Scholl. As an undergraduate, Lewis conducted programmes of baroque music with the Wykeham Ensemble (French grands motets, Bach cantatas, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri), large-scale performances of Schütz (Weihnachtshistorie), Schumann (Das Paradies und die Peri), and Haydn (Nelson Mass) with the Oxford University Chorus, as well as being invited to conduct the University Opera Society’s production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in 2019.

Also at home in an earlier repertory, Lewis is a founding member of ‘Fount and Origin’ (directed by James Tomlinson). In 2019, the group was awarded a recording contract by the early music label “Inventa Records”, a sub-label of Resonus Classics. The recording, inspired by Rogier van der Weyden’s polyptych in Beaune’s Hôtel-Dieu, is comprised of music contemporary to the altarpiece written by Antoine Brumel and Johannes Ockeghem as well as many anonymous settings of texts related to the Last Judgement. The disc was highly acclaimed by both BBC Music and Gramophone magazines. ‘F&O’ made its Italian concert debut in Padua in January 2024.

In 2022, Lewis concluded his studies at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles where he specialised in the performance of 17th and 18th century music. Recordings with the CMBV include Charpentier’s David et Jonathas (direction: Olivier Schneebeli), Rameau’s Achanthe et Céphise and Deux opéras pour le roi Louis XV by Colin de Blamont (Alexis Kossenko), Back to Lully with Véronique Gens (Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas), and Marais’s Ariane et Bacchus (Hervé Niquet). Whilst at the CMBV Lewis also participated in masterclasses with the renowned conductors Hervé Niquet and Emmanuelle Haïm.

Among other professional groups, Lewis regularly sings with Ensemble Correspondances (Sébastien Daucé) and Les Surprises (Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas). This summer, Lewis performed with Ensemble Pygmalion (Raphaël Pichon) at the international Festival of Aix-en-Provence and will rejoin them in September for their tour of Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine.

Lewis currently studies orchestral conducting as part of the cycle spécialisé under the tutorship of Michaël Cousteau at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris. Alongside his recent appointment as interim conductor of the Paris Choral Society, Lewis directs two other vocal ensembles: Le Fil d’Or (a professional ensemble focused on 15th and 16th music, with a particular interest in English repertoire) and the Flying Fishes (a chamber choir with whom he has conducted programmes of English and Italian madrigals, French Renaissance chansons, German songs, and English Partsongs). Their next project is an all-French programme of Poulenc and Debussy.

Accompanist

Honorary Accompanist

Andrew Dewar’s musical career started at an early age; he began playing the Organ at his local church in Yeovil (Somerset) at the age of nine. With a scholarship to Wells Cathedral School in 1996 he studied the Organ with Rupert Gough, David Sanger, David Briggs (improvisation) and Harpsichord with Dr David Ponsford. From 1999-2000 he was Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral before moving to Germany where he studied at the Musikhochschule, Stuttgart, with Prof Dr Ludger Lohmann. Andrew is currently Organist at the American Cathedral in Paris.

Andrew has won prizes in the following organ competitions:

First Prizes

• Pipeworks International Organ Competion, Dublin 2014
• St Albans International Organ Competition 2005 (Including Audience Prize)
• Bach prize, Wiesbaden 2005
• Mendelssohn Competition, Berlin 2003
• International Organ Competition, Landau an der Isar 2002 (Plus the Arthur Piechler Interpretation Prize)
• Plymouth National Young Organists’ Competition 2001

Second Prizes

• Canadian International Organ Competition, Montreal 2014 (Plus the Bach Prize)
• Canadian International Organ Competition, Montreal 2008 (Plus the Olivier Messiaen Prize)
• International Bach/Liszt Competion, Erfurt 2008 (Plus the Julius Reubke Interpretation Prize)
• International E. F. Walcker Competition, Schramberg 2004
• Organ ART Museum, Rhein-Nahe 2003
• St Albans International Organ Competition 2003

Andrew performs solo recitals throughout Europe, Russia and North America. 2015 engagements include the Cirencester Organ Festival (UK), Jeunesse Concert Series Vienna, Thüringer Bach Wochen (Germany), and the Festival Bach de Montréal.

Live recordings from recent concerts can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ardinsel33.

He served as a jury member at the 2015 International BACH | LISZT Organ Competition in Weimar/Erfurt (Germany).