1st October 2026
This summer, the LMH Chapel Choir took its annual tour to Spain. Based in Ávila, a small city west of Madrid, the choir performed two evening concerts, at the Basilica of Santa Teresa in Ávila and the Capilla de Vera Cruz in Salamanca, before singing at Sunday Mass at Ávila’s Basilica of San Vicente.
Organ Scholar George Ke helped organise the tour:
“The tour was an amazing experience all around for everyone involved and a hugely rewarding project,” George said.
“The performances themselves were a highlight, not only because of how jaw-droppingly beautiful the places were, but also the rewarding reception local audiences gave us, including a performance where one of the church staff told us we were the best choir he had ever heard perform there.
“For me, a particular stand out was performing at Capilla de Vera Cruz,” George said. “We took an early morning train from Ávila to Salamanca and got to all gaze out at the endless hills and mountains on the way there.
“The chapel secretary, David, who I had been corresponding to for months beforehand, had such a contagious energetic enthusiasm. He treated the choir to a personal tour of the wider monastery site and was lovely to chat with.”
The tour also brought some less expected moments for its student organisers. At the Basilica of Santa Teresa, months of correspondence had apparently given staff a rather different impression of the person who would eventually arrive with the choir.
“At Basilica Santa Teresa, it was also funny to surprise the church staff I had been corresponding with,” George said. “From our emails, they had apparently expected a wise old man to lead the choir and had been addressing me with the formal usted throughout, only to discover I was just another student.”
Away from rehearsals and performances, the six days gave choir members time together beyond the usual rhythm of College life.
“Outside of performances, it was wonderful for the choir bond together socially,” George said. “I definitely felt that the experience brought the group closer together, even across courses and year groups.”
The choir travelled to Segovia for a day trip, climbed Ávila’s city walls together to watch the sunset and cooked meals at their accommodation (including an ambitious paella that took four hours to make.)
The group also found themselves caught up in the atmosphere of Spain’s World Cup campaign, joining crowds watching matches on screens in Ávila’s town square and, as George put it, “temporarily abandoning our English identities to support Spain”.
Those experiences formed an important part of a tour designed not only as a series of performances, but as an opportunity for a choir made up of LMH students from different subjects, years and backgrounds to spend time together.
“We pride ourselves on having a choir that is friendly, and that features a mix of experience levels, including those who had never sung in a choir before coming to Oxford,” George said.
“Maintaining the accessibility of tour has been one of the ways in reaffirming the welcoming inclusive atmosphere we try to cultivate. We are thankful for the financial support that has allowed us to do this, and to plan ambitiously.”
Recent Chapel Choir tours in Europe have typically cost around £6,500–£7,500 for travel and accommodation. For this year’s tour, 14 donors contributed a total of £3,070.50, helping to reduce the cost to individual students and enabling choir members from different backgrounds to take part.
George paid particular thanks to Mark Robson and Tom Drury for their support in making the tour possible.
For the choir, the six days ultimately brought together the two sides of the experience: the chance to perform ambitious music in distinctive spaces, and the friendships built around it.
“The tour was a wonderful opportunity to produce high-level music that the LMH community can be proud of,” George said, “while cultivating friendships and memories for life.”
