‘Swan Song Residency’ at St. Paul’s, London, Celebrates God’s Glory in Music

Passion – for God, for the church and for music – drives Andrew Walker, longtime director of music at St. Michael’s, Orlando. That passion has now taken him; members of the St. Michael’s choir; and invited guests to St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, where the group sang five evensongs (the service of evening prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, with the main elements sung) as the choir in residence on Dec. 29, 2025-Jan. 2, 2026. St. Paul’s, famous as the cathedral where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married, has gained recent prominence as the home of Dame Sarah Mullally, bishop of London, who will be consecrated on Jan. 28 as the archbishop of Canterbury.

Authentic Worship

The trip carried both professional and personal significance for Walker, who grew up in England but emigrated to the U.S. and served at Grace, Ocala, for three years before moving to his current position. Sunday, May 31, the last day he will play at St. Michael’s as music director, also marks the 45th anniversary of his ministry there – to the day. His official retirement will take place June 30.

The choir that sang at St. Paul’s, numbering 48 in all, included both present and past members of the St. Michael’s choir; a few members of the choir at St. Richard’s, Winter Park; and friends Walker has met along the way, some on other U.K. choral trips he has led. Some alumni of Walker’s previous youth choirs and their children also sang with the group. A total of 65 people – choir and family or friends – met up in London.

Throughout his career, Walker has arranged multiple choral trips that included singing at various U.K. cathedrals, but this was his fourth time to lead a choir singing in residence at St. Paul’s. “In residence,” he explained, represents a higher level of choral expertise than simply singing at a single service there. To qualify, groups must submit a recording for evaluation; the in-residence privilege includes singing two or more evensongs and daily rehearsal time at the Cathedral.

For this most recent trip, Walker invited Canon Michael Petrosh, canon musician for the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando; and Dr. Andrew Minear, director of music ministry at All Saints, Winter Park, who brought his entire family to share the experience. “For what must have been the first time ever, the three directors of music at the three largest Orlando/Winter Park parishes were together, singing at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London!” Walker said.

He also invited Petrosh to accompany the choir on organ for one of the services; the St. Luke’s musician had to submit a resume and additional material before St. Paul’s deemed him qualified to play. Mr. Hamish Wagstaff, organist for St. Paul’s, accompanied the group for the other evensongs.

“I have been a part of seven choral residencies since my time as a college chorister,” said Petrosh. “Andrew had graciously invited me to take part after I had finished accompanying his choral scholars for their All Saints concert a few years ago. I thought it would be a truly unique experience to be able to come along on a ‘swan song’ residency, which gave this trip more gravitas than the summer residencies I had been part of up to that point.

“Andrew’s graciousness was extended further when he asked if I would like to play the opening and closing voluntaries for one of the evensongs of the residency,” Petrosh continued. “Unbeknownst to either of us, St. Paul’s had changed their rules for visiting organists so that the organist must play the entire service, not merely a portion of it. So, to ‘have a crack’ at the organ, I was to accompany the choir for evensong in addition to voluntaries.

“It was a truly different, stressful, yet exciting Wednesday afternoon and evening,” he said. “I was allowed an hour at 2:15 p.m. to set up the organ for evensong, pausing for prayers at the top of the hour, then we had a 20-minute rehearsal to get my best guesses at organ registration together with Andrew conducting the choir: stressful fun, as I call it. Probably the highlight was the closing voluntary, a toccata by Denis Bédard on the French carol “Il Est Né.” With a cathedral filled with a significant amount of service attendees, the sound of the final chord reverberated in the room for about eight seconds after I had lifted my hands and feet. There are so very few spaces in the world where that kind of acoustic can be experienced, which made both playing and singing in that space quite the experience, on top of the history of that very space, which has hosted sung and said services for the past 1400 years in some capacity.”

Walker designed the trip to include plenty of time for sightseeing and other activities, both those offered at St. Paul’s – such as brass rubbings and climbing the steps to the dome – and elsewhere in London. “Every time we go, I try to have the choir prepared so well that all we have to do is the required time at the cathedral,” he said. For this trip, the required time extended from 3-6 p.m. from Tuesday-Friday. Rehearsals for the evensongs began in mid-October (with long-distance members joining via Zoom) and concluded with a run-through of the entire program on Monday, Dec. 29, in the St. Paul’s practice room.

Regardless of the sightseeing opportunities, Walker’s focus remained the same as when he led his first choir trip back to the U.K.: an authentic, one-of-a-kind worship experience. “St. Paul’s evensong services are so worshipful, just full of the Holy Spirit,” he said. “You’re drenched in the presence of God in those services, and I would go back with another group in a heartbeat. … It’s just such an incredible experience to sing in that place.”

Continuing Steps

In line with his walk of faith, he sees his upcoming retirement as a step of obedience. Noting that God called him to music ministry from the first time he sang with a choir at age 8, “That same still, small voice that was pulling me to emigrate and serve at Grace, Ocala in 1976 and 1977 was the same voice with the same force that pulled me to St. Michael’s in 1980,” he said. “And I am aware of the same still, small voice – or maybe in this case a really loud voice – calling me to the next chapter of my life, whatever that may be. And so I’m continuing to walk down the road that Christ has set out for me, and I will continue to walk on it after the last Sunday I will play at St. Michael’s.”

That road may well include more choir trips to the U.K., Walker said, adding, “I’ve been thinking of just lots of different things I would love to do. I will still teach private students, and I’m really looking forward to having an hour or two every day when I sit down on a regular basis and compose … I’m looking forward to that, and I will make myself available to churches in the Central Florida area, no matter what the denomination, if they need a substitute. There are lots of people who do that, but I have years and years of knowing how to fix organs: pipe organs and even the occasional electronic one, and I will offer that service to the area too.”

He also intends to offer consulting on various aspects of church music and make himself available for single- or multiple-day workshops, music festivals and commissions. He also looks forward to time with his wife, Gladys, and their children, grandchildren and “beloved Rottweiler,” along with playing the various virtual reality games he enjoys. Overall, he said, “Music ministry has been an absolute constant in my life, such that I have never really devoted myself to anything else.”