Chorister scholarships for ten youngsters

Oscar Salomon, Jacob Watson and Fred Maltby will join the choir in September as probationer choristers, along with Samuel Jarvis from Shrivenham, who currently sings in his village church choir, and Edward Parker from Bishop’s Cleeve near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. Edward’s sister Amelia already sings with the choir, and Edward is currently a member of the Cheltenham College choir. He is very excited about being a boarder at the same school as his big sister. 

Another soon-to-be chorister following an older sibling into the choir is 7-year-old Venetia Sturgeon. Venetia’s sister Allegra has been a member of the Cathedral choir for two-and-a-half years. Joining Venetia in the choir later in the year are Rose Howarth from Abingdon, Matilda Macmillan from Broad Chalke and Phoebe Geary and Alice Griffin, who are already pupils at the Cathedral School. 

It takes about a year for probationers to become full choristers and the Cathedral’s two separate choirs (boys and girls) share the choir duties. When they join at the start of the Autumn term, the new choristers will rehearse and occasionally sing with the choir, becoming part of the Cathedral’s ancient choral tradition. They’ll also need to be well organised because a chorister’s life is a busy one, with sports, hobbies, music and other school activities to fit in around rehearsal and services. 

David Halls, Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, is delighted with the new line up. After two years of disrupted recruitment due to the pandemic he is relieved to have found ten excellent candidates: “It’s good to have got to this point with such a strong field. There were moments last year when it looked as though Be A Chorister for a Day and the Voice Trials might not have gone ahead. Had that happened it would have been a major problem. Choirs never standstill, children move on to senior school, boys’ voices change - and very quickly you can find yourself without the depth and experience that a choir needs to stay at the top of its game.” 

Anyone interested in knowing more about Salisbury Cathedral Choir can contact Catherine Mitchell, Music Officer at Salisbury Cathedral by email on musicofficer@salcath.co.uk