Ralph Allwood

Ralph Allwood, MBE (born 30 April 1950) is a British conductor, who currently conducts the choir of Queens' College, Cambridge.He was previously the Precentor and Director of Music at Eton College in the UK until September 2011, and set up many musical events, including the Eton Choral Courses of which there are now seven a year. He previously headed the music departments at Pangbourne and Uppingham. He also conducts the Rodolfus Choir, a critically acclaimed group of singers aged 16–25, drawn principally from the Eton Choral Courses.

Allwood is also the conductor of Inner Voices, a youth chamber choir based in London. Set up in 2011, the choir brings together great singers from a group of London state schools to sing music from across the genre boundaries under the direction of Allwood.

Allwood implemented many changes to the Eton College Music Department since his arrival in 1985, including changes to the music lesson and scheduling system and doubling the size of the music schools. One very important job was to select the Music Scholars and Exhibitioners for entry into the school in F Block.

Allwood directed and ran the College Chapel Choir at Eton, and had been doing so since 1985. In 2009, he announced that he would be retiring from his post as Precentor and Director of Music in 2011.

His brother, Peter Allwood, was the former Director of Music at Christ's Hospital before he became a headmaster.

He was replaced as Precentor at Eton by Tim Johnson, who was previously the director of music at The Royal College of St Peter in Westminster, in September 2011.

He was appointed MBE in the Queen's 2012 New Year Honours List.

Allwood was awarded an honorary doctoral degree (DMus) from the University of Aberdeen in 2013.

In 2017, he was awarded the Thomas Cranmer Award for Worship by the Archbishop of Canterbury "for services to choral music in the Church of England and especially for fostering musical education amongst disadvantaged children".