Two girls' voices rang out from the choir loft of St. Paul's Cathedral in London last Sunday, when 11-year-old Lila and 10-year-old Lois became the first girls to join the cathedral's choir as official members.
Lila and Lois have been training with the choir since September 2023. The plans to admit girls were first announced more than a year before that, in May 2022. Until September 2025, the cathedral's 900-year-old choir program will accept up to 30 girls, 8 to 13 years old, and grant them equal opportunity for both education and responsibility in the singing of services. With its boys' counterpart, the girl choristers will sing Evensong six times a week, as well as at Mattins and the Eucharist on Sundays.
St. Paul's chorister education program is funded by the Chorister Trust, which it will expand to accommodate the girls' choir. The cathedral aims to raise a total of $11,000, broken down into $7,500 for the girls' scholarship, and $3,500 to provide additional boarding at the Cathedral school and make changes to the Cathedral's choir practice room.
At the time of the announcement, the Dean of St Paul's, the Very Reverend Dr David Ison, said that it had been a "long-held ambition to introduce girls' voices into the cathedral choir. Doing this will create an exceptional new music opportunity for young people and will further enhance the contribution of our highly valued and much-loved choir to the worship life of the cathedral and the heritage of the nation."
Andrew Carwood, director of music at St. Paul's said the plans were delayed by the pandemic and the resulting loss of income. "Now we're getting our mojo back, and one of the first things is to get girls into the choir."
Other Anglican cathedrals in England have already admitted girls into their choirs, including Durham, Exeter, and York Minster. The first to do so was Salisbury in 1991.
