Today, Gloriæ Dei Cantores under the direction of Richard K. Pugsley holds this same passionate dedication to illuminate truth and beauty through choral artistry, celebrating a rich tradition of sacred choral music from Gregorian chant through the twenty-first century. The unity and strength of the choir’s musical impact have garnered extensive critical acclaim for their artistic elegance, performance authenticity, and compelling spirituality. Through concerts, livestreamed events and a catalog of more than fifty recordings distributed in the United States and internationally by Naxos, the choir reaches a global audience of people in over 150 countries, showcasing an extensive repertoire, encompassing both masterpieces and rarely performed musical treasures.

“Superb”—BBC; “Lovely, pure, and radiant” Gramophone; “Rapturous a capella passages”—Chicago Tribune.

Highlights of the choir’s career include three invitational tours to Russia; opening the 900th anniversary of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy; live radio and television broadcasts with the BBC; film soundtracks; the tree-lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Plaza; and performances in some of the finest concert halls throughout Eastern and Western Europe and across the United States.

The choir’s collaborative ventures have included a US tour of Mozart’s Requiem with Philippe Entremont and the Munich Symphony Orchestra (Columbia Artists, CAMI, LLC); performances with Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards; concerts of Mozart’s Requiem with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in Russia; world premiere concerts and recordings with Grammy award-winning artist Mark O’Connor; and ten Holiday Tours with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra.

They have also appeared on the concert stage and in recordings with John Williams, Samuel Adler, Stephen Cleobury, Vladimir Minin, George Guest, Mary Berry, and Margaret Hillis, among others.

Gloriæ Dei Cantores makes its home at the Church of the Transfiguration (Orleans, MA) where the choir sings weekly worship services and seasonal concerts, and records throughout the year. The members’ ongoing life of worship—Sunday Eucharist, Choral Evensong, and Liturgy of the Hours in Gregorian Chant—is the foundation of the choir’s artistry, enabling their extensive repertoire to become a vibrant form of prayer in any setting. Their music conveys “a kind of utter, rapt, spiritual intensity, that you simply can’t imagine unless you’ve experienced it for yourself” (American Record Guide). gdcchoir.org

Pugsley has conducted the internationally recognized Gloriæ Dei Cantores for more than fifteen years, and performed with the choir in concert halls and churches in twenty four countries throughout Europe, Russia, and North America for more than twenty-five years. His passion for enlivening the sacred texts of choral literature as relevant and present encounters of sung prayer spans the traditions of ancient Gregorian chant, to classic repertoire, modern works, and rarely performed choral gems.

Maestro Pugsley has conducted over 2,000 works at the Church of the Transfiguration in Orleans, MA. Featured performances have included Bach’s Fürchte dich nicht, Lobet den Herrn, Komm Jesu komm, Jesu der du meine Seele, Jesu meine Freude, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied; Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Missa Solemnis; Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Festival Te Deum, and Rejoice in the Lamb; Bruckner’s Os Justi and Pange Lingua, Messe in F Minor; des Prez’s Missa Pange Lingua; Ešenvalds’ Trinity Te Deum, Psalm 67, Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis; Gretchaninov’s Missa Festiva; Grieg’s Fire Salmer; Hanson’s Cherubic Hymn and How Excellent Thy Name; Haydn’s Mass in D Minor; Howells’ A Sequence for St. Michael, Requiem, and Take Him Earth for Cherishing; Ives’ Psalm 100 and Psalm 135; Kodaly’s Missa Brevis; Langlais’s Messe Solennelle and Messe en style ancien; Martin’s Mass for Double Choir; Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Mass in C Minor, Scande coeli limina, and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore; Pärt’s Salve Regina, Berliner Messe, L’abbé Agathon, and Peace Be Upon You, O Jerusalem; Persichetti’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis and Mass for Mixed Chorus; Poulenc’s Four Lenten Motets, Four Advent Motets, and Gloria; Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; Rheinberger’s Mass in E flat, Mass in F, and Mass in G; Sowerby’s An Angel Stood by the Altar, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in D, and Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in E Minor; Stravinsky’s Mass for Mixed Chorus and Winds; Vaughan Williams’ The Call and Mass in G Minor.

In addition, numerous operatic and choral performances such as Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri; Carissimi’s Jephtha; Handel’s Messiah, Israel in Egypt, and Saul; Mendelssohn’s Elijah; Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Berger’s Brazilian Psalm; Brahms’ Requiem; Britten’s The Company of Heaven, Duruflé’s Requiem; Ešenvalds’ In Paradisum; Fauré’s Requiem; Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality, For St. Cecilia, Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice, Welcome Sweet and Sacred Feast, and Requiem da Camera; Handel’s Israel and Egypt; Haydn’s The Creation; Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors; J. S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio; Mozart’s Requiem; Pärt’s Passio; Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil; Sviridov’s Three Choruses from Tsar Feodor Ioannovich and Ineffable Mystery (Ñeizrechénnoe Chúdo); Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem; Walton’s The Twelve.

His directing in the New England Premiere of Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress was heralded by the Boston Globe as “powerful in conception and polished in execution.”

A soloist of critical acclaim, Mr. Pugsley’s most recent performance as the lead role of Pilgrim in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ opera The Pilgrim’s Progress was hailed for his fully- embodied and musically thrilling (Newsmax) performance, where he captured the character’s humility and resilient faith (Boston Classical Review). Other lead roles have included Saul in Handel’s oratorio Saul, Pilgrim in the 2005 New England Premiere of Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress, solo roles in Requiems by Fauré and Duruflé, Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and works by Bach, Copland, Grieg, Handel, Sowerby, and Vaughan Williams, among others.

Pugsley is an accomplished producer of over thirty recordings on the Gloriæ Dei Cantores Recordings label. He most recently produced Gloriæ Dei Cantores’ album To Speak to our Time: Choral Works by Samuel Adler, for which he and the choir are the recipients of the 2023 American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music.

Maestro Pugsley is a tenacious advocate for youth music education, continually inspiring young musicians to reach their greatest potential and experience the joy of excellence through performance. He has been recognized as an extraordinary teacher and coach of vocal technique. Pugsley has directed numerous ensembles and led workshops with thousands of students throughout the world including in South Africa, South Korea, Australia, and across the United States.