In 1996, the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music. In 1980, he was made an honorary fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians.

He resides at Hemingford Abbots in Cambridgeshire and frequently conducts many choirs and orchestras around the world. In 1981, Rutter founded his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, which he conducts and with which he has made many recordings of sacred choral repertoire (including his own works), particularly under his own label Collegium Records. He served as director of music at Clare College from 1975 to 1979 and led the choir to international prominence. While still an undergraduate, he had his first compositions published, including the 'Shepherd's Pipe Carol' which he had written aged 18.

He then read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the choir. He was educated at Highgate School where fellow pupils included John Tavener, Howard Shelley, Brian Chapple and Nicholas Snowman, and as a chorister there took part in the first (1963) recording of Britten's War Requiem under the composer's baton. 5 List of compositions and arrangementsīorn on 24 September 1945 in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutter grew up living over the Globe pub on London's Marylebone Road.

John rutter requiem lyrics