Changes to chorister provision & responsibilities at Canterbury

[Benjamin]

Posted to the cathedral's website on Monday 13th February:

The Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral, together with the Director of Music, David Newsholme, have announced that from September 2023, membership of the Boys’ Choir will be open to children from any school, with compulsory boarding no longer being a requirement to be in the choir.

[...]

The boy choristers (aged 8-13) and girl choristers (aged 12-18) will each sing three services a week and will be able to attend any local school giving families both flexibility and choice.

[...]

The Cathedral will continue to financially support all choristers currently studying at St Edmund’s School on a full choral scholarship until their tenure with the choir has finished.

The Board of Governors of St Edmund's School, Canterbury, which has been the cathedral's (residential) choir school for about 50 years, posted a brief response to the school's Facebook page:

We note with great sadness that Canterbury Cathedral has decided to serve notice on our contract as the Choir School of Canterbury Cathedral. St Edmund's School was first made aware of this decision verbally at a meeting on Friday 10th February at 2:30pm. The School... will continue to ensure the wellbeing and continuity of education for our current and incoming choristers and will provide support for all the affected families.

[mopsus]

I'd always thought of Canterbury as one of the wealthier Cathedral foundations. (I recall a few years ago visiting at the end of May and finding the heating still generously switched on!)

[DracoM]

Same system for the EXCELLENT Choir(s) of St Alban's Cathedral.

[cat]

Presumably one aim is equality between boys and girls, but if the boys supposedly have the best of it, why pare their experience down to the supposedly inferior position the girls currently find themselves in? Can the girls not do an extra two services a week instead of reducing the number sung by boys? Is the choir school not co-educational and can the girls not be drawn from there?

Following these changes the cathedral will surely be rolling in surplus cash previously allocated to support the boy choristers' schooling. I wonder where that will end up? I'm pretty sure it won't all remain in supporting music provision at the cathedral...

As to whether boarding and choir schools are a good thing or should be done away with in an attempt to widen access across social classes, again I'm not sure that simply paring down the experience of supposedly privileged choristers is the way to achieve this. For example, look at Jesus College, Cambridge where boys are drawn from local schools. A Contrast to King's and John's where they all board at the associated private schools. Except most boys at Jesus come from...St John's College School and King's College School, and other private schools in the city. Meanwhile King's is for example, actively seeking to recruit from underprivileged backgrounds and offering full bursaries.