Follow the Journey: A UK Choral Pilgrimage

On the choir’s last full day in England, Clara and Miles head to Windsor for one final stretch of unscheduled time before Evensong at St George’s Chapel. After Monday’s castle tour, Tuesday is for wandering wisely: the Long Walk, Eton, the Thames, the Crooked House, a little Windsor legend, and just enough shopping to endanger a suitcase. Along the way, they meet Herne the Hunter, issue firm warni...

At St George’s Chapel, Windsor, royal history is never just decorative. This week, Clara and Miles step into the chapel’s stranger side: royal weddings, hidden viewing spaces, suspicious burials, unfinished tombs, chivalric disgrace, and the astonishing fact that Henry VIII’s final memorial plans did not exactly go as advertised. From Queen Victoria watching a wedding from the Catherine of Aragon...

Departure is almost here, which means it is time to pack the suitcase, find the black socks, charge every mysterious little device, and start hydrating like your upper register depends on it. In Episode 11 of Follow the Journey: A UK Choral Pilgrimage , Clara and Miles offer a funny, practical survival guide for the final days before the choir and pilgrims leave for England. They cover choir dress...

St George’s Chapel looks grand enough to be a cathedral, but Windsor has other ideas. In this episode, Clara and Miles begin the Windsor chapters by asking why St George’s is not a cathedral, and why “just a chapel” is doing far too much work. They unpack the difference between Wells Cathedral and the royal collegiate chapel inside Windsor Castle, exploring the College of St George, King’s Free Ch...

Clara and Miles open the overflowing listener mailbag for a practical, funny, and surprisingly useful round of pilgrimage questions. Is this a choir tour, a vacation, or a pilgrimage? Are Evensongs concerts? Why is the Cathedral Eucharist in the nave while Evensong often happens in the quire? What is the difference between “choir” and “quire,” and why did Anglicanism decide to make that everyone’s...

This week, Clara and Miles step into the nave for the Cathedral Eucharist , the principal Sunday celebration of the whole cathedral community. It is the service our pilgrims may recognize most intimately, because we have been practicing much of it on Sunday mornings at St. James by-the-Sea throughout Easter: the Gospel Alleluia, the Eucharistic responses, and the shape of the liturgy itself. In th...

Who actually runs a cathedral? The bishop has the chair, the dean has the Chapter, the organist has the manuals, the verger has the keys, and somewhere, someone knows exactly where the spare service sheets are hiding. In Episode 8 of Follow the Journey: A UK Choral Pilgrimage , Clara and Miles explore the living human machinery behind England’s great cathedrals: deans, canons, Precentors, vergers,...

In this episode, Clara and Miles explore the anthems the St. James by-the-Sea choir will carry on pilgrimage to Wells Cathedral and St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, all by North American composers. What is the difference between a canticle and an anthem? Why does the anthem act almost like the choir’s sung sermon? And what happens when music by Carson Cooman, Moses Hogan, Healey Willan, Lee Hoiby, Mo...

In Episode 6 of  Follow the Journey , Clara and Miles step outside the cathedral walls for a lively guide to Wells, Somerset. From Wednesday and Saturday markets to historic pubs, Cornish pasties, Somerset cider, tea and scones, independent shops, the Bishop’s Palace, and the famous bell-ringing swans, this episode explores what to eat, drink, see, and do between rehearsals and Evensong. Come for...

At the heart of Evensong are two ancient songs: Mary’s Magnificat and Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis. One is bold, unsettling, and full of holy reversal. The other is quiet, luminous, and full of peace. In this episode, Clara and Miles explore why these two canticles have become the emotional center of Anglican evening worship, how composers bring their words to life, and what the Choir of St. James by-th...

In this episode of Follow the Journey , Clara and Miles take a deep dive into Anglican chant , the psalms, and the daily musical life of the cathedral tradition. They explore how ancient poetry becomes sung prayer, why cathedrals chant through the Psalter, and how Anglican chant turns English speech, harmony, breath, and cadence into something both disciplined and deeply human. Along the way, they...

Clara and Miles continue their lively tour through Wells Cathedral, moving beyond the first arrival into the deeper marvels of the building. From the great West Front, with its medieval statues, singing gallery, and mysterious trumpet holes, to the towers, chapels, Jesse Window, astronomical clock, Chapter House, cloisters, grotesques, Vicars’ Close, tombs, Chained Library, and High Parts, this ep...

In this episode of Follow the Journey , Clara and Miles begin a traveler’s day at Wells Cathedral, starting just across the Cathedral Green at the Swan Hotel. From the first glimpse of the West Front to the Welcome Desk, bookstore, café, and the beloved Basil the Cathedral Cat, they introduce Wells not as a museum, but as a living place of worship, hospitality, music, and memory. Along the way, th...

Welcome to Follow the Journey: A UK Choral Pilgrimage, a companion podcast following the choir and pilgrims of St. James by-the-Sea as they travel through England. In this opening episode, we look ahead to the places, music, services, and spirit of pilgrimage that will shape the journey from San Diego to Wells, Windsor, and beyond.