St Paul’s Cathedral is to admit girls to its internationally renowned choir, breaking a tradition stretching back 900 years.
The move comes 31 years after Salisbury became the first Anglican cathedral in England to permanently offer girls places in its choir. Many others, including York Minster, Durham and Exeter, have followed suit.
St Paul’s choir performs at services and events of national importance as well as daily liturgies and three times on Sundays. It will perform at a service of thanksgiving next month for the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations.
The choir currently comprises 22 choristers alongside professional singers known as vicars choral. The first girls will join in 2025 after boarding school facilities have been expanded and funds raised for scholarships.
Sarah Mullally, the bishop of London, said: “I am delighted by the chapter [governing body] decision to welcome girls into the cathedral choir. The choir plays a key role in the worship not just of the cathedral, but of the whole diocese. It will be wonderful to hear girls’ voices contributing to this.”
Andrew Carwood, director of music at St Paul’s, said: “Knowing that our incredible boys will be joined by young girl choristers in the near future is heartwarming, and an important milestone in the choir’s history.”
He said the “long-held ambition” to introduce girls had been put on hold by the Covid pandemic and resulting loss of income. “Now we’re getting our mojo back, and one of the first things is to get girls into the choir.”
According to the Traditional Cathedral Choir Association, “the ecclesiastical all-male voice choir is a hugely significant part of our heritage” that has been valued for centuries. However, “a myriad of pressures has seen many of our historic traditional choirs lost” over recent years, it adds.
At St Paul’s there will be separate boys’ and girls’ lines, which will perform together at major services. “I accept the idea of a boys’ choir as culturally iconic, and I’d like to keep that. And I’d like girls to be able to experience exactly the same thing,” Carwood said.
“Traditional is not being broken, it’s being developed. The cathedral music tradition has always moved and changed and developed. So we want to move it forward, but also to preserve, so the boys and the girls will have their own identity, their own traditions, their own style within what we do.”
St Paul’s, an architectural masterpiece designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the previous building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, recorded a 90% fall in income in 2020, prompting fears that the cathedral may have to close permanently.