Peterborough Cathedral Choir 

Singing has been a part of daily worship in Peterborough Cathedral for around 900 years.  As a Benedictine Abbey the present building resounded to the chant of generations of monks singing the office.  At the Reformation the Abbey became a Cathedral and the foundations of the present choral establishment were laid.  In 1541 Henry VIII founded and endowed the King’s School, providing an education for choristers from the age of eleven.  More recently the Choir has begun to recruit junior choristers who attend Peterborough High School before moving on to King’s for their secondary education.

Today’s choral foundation consists of twenty boy choristers, twenty girl choristers and six lay clerks.  There are also three Assistant Lay Clerks and a number of supernumerary singers who attend at weekends, bringing the Sunday cohort of adult singers to around twelve at Eucharist and Evensong.  The boys and lay clerks provide the music for two of the Sunday services and sing Evensong on most weekdays, while the girls sing on Wednesdays and join the lay clerks for one Sunday service.  In addition to its main role providing choral music for the daily services, the Choir regularly gives concerts and has undertaken a number of recordings.  In recent years it has toured Europe and the USA and made a number of television and radio broadcasts, including the theme music to the 1982 BBC production of Barchester Chronicles.  Herbert Howells, Kenneth Leighton and William Mathias are a few of the composers commissioned to write works for the Cathedral Choir over the past forty years.

In 1996 the Chapter established a Trust to raise money for the Cathedral fabric, ministry and mission.  The Elizabeth Anne Hastings Music Endowment Fund was set up to secure the financial future of the music foundation, and has raised almost £2 million to date.  It is our aim to cover the costs of running the Cathedral Choir from interest on investments in order to preserve and enhance the tradition of choral worship for future generations.

On Saturdays and during choir holiday periods we welcome the Cathedral’s voluntary choir and the many excellent visiting choirs who stand in for the choral services. See the services sheets, published on this website, for full details of the music scheduled for the next few weeks.

Peterborough Cathedral Music department

Contact us in any of the following ways:

by e-mailing us at  music@peterborough-cathedral.org.uk

by telephoning 01733 355318

by writing to us at  Chapter Office, Minster Precincts, Peterborough. PE1 1XS

Be a chorister for a day

Peterborough Cathedral is holding a ‘Be a chorister for a day’ event on Saturday 8th November from 9.15am-12.30pm, giving boys in school years two or three the opportunity to experience singing in the Cathedral Choir.  The day will include musical exercises and activities, meeting and singing with current choristers, a tour of the Cathedral and singing a short service in the Cathedral at 12pm, which parents of participating boys and other visitors are welcome to attend.  No previous experience is required.  Registration on the day will be in the South Transept of the Cathedral at 9.15am.  To book a place or for more information please contact us either by telephone on 01733 355318 or email at music@peterborough-cathedral.org.uk