In 1912, he became chorister at the Rouen Cathedral Choir School, where he studied piano and organ with Jules Haelling.
Maurice Ravel | Maurice Chevalier | Maurice Maeterlinck | Maurice Richard Arena | Maurice Delafosse | Maurice Sendak | Maurice Gibb | Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus | Maurice Elvey | Maurice Duruflé | Maurice Béjart | Maurice | Maurice Tourneur | Maurice Merleau-Ponty | Saint-Maurice | Maurice Richard | Maurice LaMarche | Maurice Kanbar | Maurice Jarre | Maurice Fitzgerald | Maurice de Saxe | Maurice Bishop International Airport | Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne | Maurice Utrillo | Maurice Petty | Maurice Lucas | Maurice Iwu | Maurice Hewlett | Maurice Blanchot | Maurice Abravanel |
The choir is currently directed by Ian Sexton and has performed large scale works including Verdi's "Messa da Requiem, Borodin's "Polovtsian Dances" and Duruflé's "Requiem (Opus 9)".
Their repertoire includes Allegri’s Miserere, Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, Stanford’s Three Motets Op 38, Duruflé’s Quatre Motets Op 10 and more recent compositions by John Tavener, Eric Sweeney and Colin Mawby.
In addition to the Gregorian chant in the Roman Gradual, many composers have written settings for the text, including Tomás Luis de Victoria, Anton Bruckner, Giuseppe Verdi, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, Benjamin Britten, Krzysztof Penderecki and David Maslanka.
His many notable students include such well-known composers as Claude Arrieu, Tony Aubin, Jocelyne Binet, Gerd Boder, Paul Bonneau, Pierre Dervaux, Maurice Duruflé, Henri Dutilleux, Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Lukas Foss, Jean Hubeau, Paul Kuentz, Paule Maurice, Xian Xinghai, Olivier Messiaen, Pedro Ipuche Riva, and René Saorgin.
Various separate musical settings have been written for this, including one by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, one by Franz Schubert, one by Maurice Duruflé, and one by Charles-Marie Widor.
The settings of the Requiem Mass by Luigi Cherubini, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, John Rutter, Karl Jenkins and Fredrik Sixten include a Pie Jesu as an independent movement.
While firmly based on Gregorian chant, the choir sings a wide repertoire range from Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd to George Frideric Handel, Herbert Howells, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, Ildebrando Pizzetti, James MacMillan and many other composers including occasional commissioned contemporary works.
Recent SUMS performances include; Mozart's Great Mass in C minor and Fauré's Requiem in 2010; Duruflé's Requiem in 2011 and Verdi's Requiem, which SUMS performed with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestra, Choir and Chamber Choir in June 2012.