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Set up in 2006, a new choir called Cantate opened the way for Girl Choristers and teenage boys to sing as part of the daily music-making at Portsmouth Cathedral. In recent years, this has developed into our offering for girls to play a full role in our Cathedral Choir.
They sing Evensong each Thursday and regular weekend services in term time, as well as singing Sunday services and concerts for major feast days. Cantate has performed in various concert venues and been involved in Portsmouth Cathedral’s Cathedral Sing! Chorister Outreach Programme, as well as taking part in the annual Portsmouth Festivities. Our Girl Choristers rehearse twice-weekly before school and play a full part in the weekly round of services and regular Sunday duties as well as BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 broadcasts. The Girl Choristers took part in the most recent CD release from Portsmouth featuring music of Advent and Christmas.
They have broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4. Alongside the daily routine within the Cathedral, Cantate maintains a healthy programme of international tours, and visited Paris, Salzburg, and the French Alps. In They have visited Malta and Gozo, singing services and concerts across the islands, including a concert in St George’s Basilica in Gozo, on the penultimate night of the Victoria International Arts Festival. They took part in the ‘Fauré Requiem Tour’ (jointly promoted with Friends of Cathedral Music) with Stephen Layton and the City of London Symphony Orchestra, performing Fauré’s Requiem and Countless and wonderful are the ways to praise God, a new commission from Gabriel Jackson.
In 2016 they toured Italy, singing concerts and services in and around Tuscany. They sang in Bologna and took part in the annual International Choir Festival in Florence, with performances in some of the most prestigious places in the historical centre of the city, including the basilicas of Santa Trinita and San Lorenzo, and the auditorium of Santo Stefano al Ponte Vecchio as well as giving a concert in the Catedrale di Pisa, in the shadow of the Leaning Tower. In 2017 they toured Cyprus singing services and concerts across the island and have recently returned from singing in Iceland.