When he began working in London he joined the Bach Choir, and sang as second bass for some 50 years. He always said how nervous he was when he came up for re-audition, as choir members regularly had to, in front of his old friend David Willcocks. He reckoned to have sung in more than 100 performances of the St Matthew Passion. Eventually he served as chairman, and later president, of the choir. In an interview he said that he regarded membership of the choir as “a way of life”.