Salisbury Cathedral celebrates 30th Anniversary of the first all-female choir in English Cathedral
It started in our Wiltshire landmark
Last updated 13th Oct 2021
Salisbury Cathedral are celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the founding of the Cathedral's first girls choir.
To mark the event, a special Gala Concert was held, bringing past and present singers back to perform in front of The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
In 1991, the same year in which the 900th anniversary of the founding of the very first boys' choir at Old Sarum was celebrated, Salisbury became the first English Cathedral to form a separate and independent foundation for girl choristers.
They sang their first service in October of that year and nowadays the weekly services are equally divided between the boy and girl choristers.
Today, music at Salisbury Cathedral is provided by sixteen boy choristers and sixteen girl choristers aged 8-13 years old and six lady vicars.
Speaking about the anniversary and concert, Director of Music David Halls said:
“The success of our girl chorister tradition has been replicated in cathedrals throughout the country and is something of which we are rightly proud. For thirty years the girls choir has been an integral part of our worship, and a wonderful training ground for young musicians. The concert celebrates that legacy and reflects the long tradition of music at Salisbury Cathedral, a tradition that stretches back nearly a thousand years.”
Gala Concert to celebrate the milestone
The concert, which was led by the current Cathedral girls choir and adult singers, supported by former girl choristers, took place in Salisbury Cathedral yesterday.
With the youngest of that first intake of girl choristers, Amy Carson, returns to perform a solo, Pamina’s aria Ach, ich fühl’s from The Magic Flute by Mozart.
Camilla Harris, also a former chorister and recent graduate of Royal Academy Opera, sung Let the Bright Seraphim
It took place three decades after the girls choir sang their first Evensong on October 7th 1991.
At the time there were some girls singing in other cathedrals, but Salisbury was the first English Cathedral to admit girls on parity with the boys and to establish an independent foundation to support girl singers.
Lady Chichester, Chairman of Salisbury Cathedral Girl Chorister’s Foundation said:
“I am delighted the Gala Concert was able to go ahead, given the challenges all musicians have faced over the past year. More than 150 girls have benefitted from the outstanding choral training at this Cathedral, and the pioneering decision to establish the Girl Chorister’s Foundation has been generously supported by our donors over the years, offering girls and young women life-changing musical opportunities.”