Peterborough Cathedral Girls’ Choir

The present members of the Peterborough Cathedral Choirs are today’s successors in the long line of singers who have maintained the traditional daily singing of the offices in the Cathedral for the past nine centuries. Until 1997, the cathedral choir, in common with other English cathedral choirs was all-male, consisting of the choirboys and the six professional adult singers (the Lay Clerks) who sing alto, tenor and bass. At that time, the enormous benefits and opportunities of being a cathedral chorister were made available to girls as well as boys, when the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough approved the formation of an entirely separate Cathedral Girls’ Choir to run in parallel with the Boys’ Choir. There are twenty-four girl choristers, aged from twelve to eighteen, and they are all educated at the King’s School, Peterborough, which was founded in 1541 by Henry VIII when the great Abbey of Peterborough was raised to the rank of Cathedral.

The Girls’ Choir plays a full part in the musical life of the cathedral and the city – the girls practise five times each week and sing regularly for cathedral services. They perform weekly as a choir in their own right, with a wide range of music for soprano and alto voices in up to four or five parts. The girls also combine with the Cathedral Lay Clerks, providing the soprano line for a repertoire of music for mixed voices which spans five centuries. In addition to the normal round of practices and services, the girls sing at special services and concerts, both on their own and with the Lay Clerks. They have taken part in BBC television broadcasts (including the internationally broadcast Christmas Songs of Praise in 1998), in addition to recordings for local television and radio, and have featured on recordings which include two CD recordings of Christmas music from the Cathedral. In 2003, the girls and men broadcast Choral Evensong live on BBC Radio 3.

Membership enquiries

At the beginning of each academic year, applications are invited from girls who have just started in Year 6 for admission to the choir and to the King's School in September of the following year.

Successful candidates who are prepared to make the full commitment of practices and services are awarded a place in the choir. A place at the King's School is also awarded (under Category 2: Chorister places), and this place is conditional on continued and committed membership of the choir.

For further details, 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

Tour to Belgium in October 2000

The Cathedral Girls’ Choir is a relatively new and exciting development in the musical life of the Cathedral, offering girls the musical opportunities hitherto only available to boys. The Girls’ Choir already plays an important part in enhancing the worship at cathedral services, and in bringing the cathedral’s rich musical heritage to the attention of the wider community by means of concerts and recordings.

They extended this process of outreach by performing an intensive series of concerts and services in Belgium with the Cathedral Lay Clerks from Friday 20^th October to Sunday 29^th October, 2000. Engagements included a concert in Lier as part of the Flanders Festival, and concerts in Haasdonk, Kaprijke and Deinze. The choir also sang mass at Antwerp Cathedral on Sunday 29th October.