The Compline Choir was founded by Dr. Peter R. Hallock, Organist and Choirmaster at Saint Mark’s Seattle from 1951 to 1991. While a student at the Royal School of Church Music in Canterbury in the late 1940s, Hallock was introduced to chanted Compline in the crypt of the cathedral. Early in his tenure at Saint Mark’s, he invited twelve music students from the University of Washington to study and sing plainchant. By 1956 this study group had become The Compline Choir, and the Sunday night office was opened to the public. Starting in 1962, the service began to be broadcast live on Classical KING—by some accounts, the longest-running radio broadcast in Seattle.
For many years, only a small congregation would gather to listen, but beginning in the late 1960s, Compline was discovered by a new audience of young spiritual seekers, who began to bring cushions, blankets, and pillows to the cathedral to experience the meditative liturgy while seated on the floor or lying on the altar platform, a practice which continues to this day.
The members of the Compline Choir are not monks. Some are Christians of various denominations; some are non-believers. All members of choir are volunteers and freely give of their time and talents. The current director of the choir, Dr. Jason Anderson, took over from Peter Hallock in 2009.
The Women’s Compline Choir
In the summer of 2019, the men of the Compline Choir traveled to the U.K. for two weeks, serving residencies in Canterbury and Salisbury. To cover the services during absence, Saint Mark’s Associate Musician Rebekah Gilmore was asked to assemble an all-female choir, comprising some of the most accomplished choral singers in the Seattle area. The services they sang, the first all-female services in the 63-year history of Compline at Saint Mark’s, were deeply moving to many. The Women’s Compline Choir now gathers to chant the service a few times each year, usually during the summer. More…
Nurturing the soul
The Compline Choirs are unique communities of laypersons with diverse beliefs that seek to express musically a concern for the nurture and care of the soul—spiritual nourishment. The mission of the Compline Choirs has been to perform and record liturgical and religious music for the edification and enjoyment of listeners; to promote and perpetuate ancient, traditional, and contemporary musical forms of worship; and, to minister to the spiritual needs of the community.
Shared ministry and support
The Compline Choir is a Washington state non-profit corporation and registered charity, and classified as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization under Internal Revenue Code. The Choir is a shared ministry of the Peter R. Hallock Institute, The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, and Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral.
You can support the ministry of the choir with a one-time or sustaining monetary contribution, or through planned giving.
Quotes
“Silence and time for interior reflection are often identified as the most powerful and moving characteristics of the Compline service. With its ministry directed toward spiritual values that nurture the soul, I see us engaged in a radical activity to act contrary to the icons of contemporary society—money, power, material comfort. These values cannot sustain or nourish the soul.”
—Peter R. Hallock (1924–2014), I Director and Founder of the Compline Choir
“Compline occurs in space—not just the acoustical space of the cathedral, but also the psychological space opened for us in darkness and night. Those gathered at the cathedral and listening to the radio or online broadcasts form a congregation engaged in a mystical experience that helps facilitate a journey towards the Divine.”
—Jason Anderson, II Director of the Compline Choir