The
CHORISTERS
LEARNING IN HARMONY
ABOUT
Almost 900 years after its founding in 1123 AD, the Cathedral School at St Paul’s continues to offer a first class choral music program for the children and families involved, winning renown around the globe for the choristers’ international performances.
HISTORY
In 2018 the Cathedral School launched an ambitious project to transform the lives of Choristers and students, provide opportunities for children across London, and open its residential doors to American choirs during the summer.
The Chorister Boarding House
In 2019, the Cathedral School complete construction of the new Chorister’s Boarding House. The Trust is particularly grateful to the generous gift of Mark Pigott, KBE, KStJ for helping to complete this project.
The Launch of the Girls’ Voices Chorister Campaign
In May, St Paul’s Cathedral announced their newest venture: “Girl’s Voices.” After a 900-year history of boy-choristers, St Paul’s will introduce a comparable girls chorister program by 2025 that will continue and expand the Cathedral’s musical legacy of excellence.
With equity top of mind, St Paul’s has worked to address two key issues. First, given that the boys chorister program is world renowned, the only way to build parity for girls is to invest significant time and money to create a second, equally renowned program. Second, on a practical level, in order to achieve a comparable girls’ choir, the music department must work with the fact that girl voices often do not have the same kind of power and range until later in adolescence. The Cathedral’s Music Department explored partnering with an upper-level girls’ school to find more advanced voices. In the end, the decision was to achieve true parity. Not only would the girls program involve children of the same age as the boy choristers, but those girls would need to have full access to the entire boarding and school programs. Between amending the physical buildings and raising sponsorship support for this additional choral program, the Cathedral believes a three-year start-up calendar will be necessary to achieve these goals.
How does this impact the average person attending worship at St Paul’s? The answer is simple: double the opportunities for choral music with two equal “top lines,” one of boys, one of girls, both working with the Vicars Choral, singing ten services a week. More importantly, for a little girl visiting the Cathedral for the very first time or an older woman who is a regular part of the Cathedral’s daily life will see themselves in the future of the Cathedral’s finest traditions.
The Campaign offers several ways to get involved:
Supporting the reconditioning of the Schoolhouse building to include space for the Girl Choristers and staff.
Making a five year commitment to sponsor Chorister positions to get the program off the ground.
Making a gift to “new traditions” which include things like Chorister vestments, an expanded music library, opportunities for the Girl’s Choristers to participate in the traditions of the Boys and develop traditions of their own!