Cathedral Music News - Summer 2025
Round-up
Our Summer Term whisked by—we hosted a visit from Dulwich College Choir, a brilliant tour to Belgium, The City Service, a trip to sing with Salisbury Cathedral Choir, Seafarers’, a BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong as well as lots of farewells to our leaving choristers (including a fabulous Leavers’ Concert right pic) and scholars for whom we have so much to be thankful….
People
And for none more so than our vintage set of Scholars, Jimmy, Noah, Theo, Joel and Organ Scholar, and budding composer Kim who have been a brilliant and talented set of young men with whom to work. We have also been blessed this year with a vintage set of boy and girl senior teams - we say thank you and adieu to Daniel, Niki, Anna, Dawn, as well as Max, Owen, Pippa and Libby. It has been an honour to watch them grow and develop in their music-making and we thank them for their commitment and loyalty to this place over a combined 47 years between the 8 of them!
The Next Generation
But life moves on, and as I write this we are about to welcome next year's set of Scholars for an induction day, and we will welcome Henry, Sam, Jeremy, Alex, Eliot and Michael to the team next term and a new milestone has been reached in that we have 70 choristers on our books for the first time - lots of new boys and girls have joined our junior choirs this year and you will soon see them appearing in the choir stalls as room is made by our departing singers.
Visit to Salisbury Cathedral
We were delighted to take the boy choristers and back row to sing with Salisbury Cathedral Choir for an Evensong in June. Former Portsmouth chorister Edward moved there in 2024 and so it was excellent to join with him and his fellow Salisbury choristers to sing a joint service followed by a splendid BBQ at the Cathedral School.
BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong
It was the boy choristers’ turn to broadcast BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong this year, and they finished their choir year with this live broadcast with some beautiful singing of music by Martin Baker, Philip Moore, Stanford and Sir John Rutter and fabulous clarinet playing from our own Alex Wallace.
We had some lovely feedback from composer Philip Moore and Westminster
Abbey Lay Clerk (and former Portsmouth Choral Scholar), Simon Wall….
“Very many thanks you and the choir and Sachin for today's broadcast. We loved Martin's piece and it was so good to hear a clarinet in a broadcast Choral Evensong. A first perhaps? We loved the stately and right speed for the Stanford and the Psalm was so thoughtful - one of my greatly loved psalms. The Dance Rondo was a crackerjack! Super. Lovely prayers too, at the end. I guess the boys will be having a much deserved break and hope they will remember their last service with pleasure.” Philip Moore
“I just wanted to send massive congratulations for the broadcast on Wednesday. It was totally SPLENDID. I loved the music choices. The Stanford was stonking and the Rutter absolutely gorgeous. What a fine tenor soloist! The boys sounded really committed and thrilling and the back row likewise. It’s precisely 30 years since the end of my gap year. I still feel enormous fondness for that beautiful cathedral.” Simon Wall
The First Nowell
We’re delighted that our BBC Music Magazine Christmas cover CD has now been re-released by Signum Records. So if you didn’t manage to get a BBC music magazine copy last December, there is now a re-packaged CD plus on-line downloads available from The Cathedral Shop and on-line.
Tough Mudder Madness
Thank you to everyone who sponsored Choral Scholars
Noah, Joel and Jimmy and DP for Tough Mudder at Belvoir Castle this month. We have raised £2,500 for Macmillan Cancer—we got very muddy for this great cause—and we agreed that the Choristers should do it next year!
JOIN OUR CHOIR
We are always pleased to hear from prospective singers—boys and girls aged Year 2 upwards can audition at any time and we hold regular choir taster sessions.
Email for more information - music@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk
Tour to BELGIUM May 2025
'Heaven is eternal music. Thank you for being our angels today'
Thus spoke the Canon Pastor of Antwerp Cathedral who was presiding at last Sunday's Mass in the cathedral, a service for which we sang the Widor Mass.
We're just back from a wonderful tour to Antwerp and Mechelen and here follows a few highlights.
18 boys and 18 adults (including Canon Jo, Dr Price, Lay Clerks, Scholars and 3 Matrons) departed for St Pancras International on Friday 23 May. Our mix of Jet Blue and Navy Blue choir tour hoodies were easy to safely track our procession across the busy London station to board Eurostar to Brussels. We arrived in no time at all and grabbed pizza and ice cream before catching our next train to Antwerp itself. A quick hop onto the metro and we were at our smart hostel and settled in.
On Saturday we had a superb morning at Antwerp Zoo – a spacious animal park with elephants, rhinos, an aquarium, meercats, gorillas and monkeys – though the choristers and scholars almost out-matched the latter's dexterity in the children's play zone monkey bars and treehouse!
After lunch we met up with Sub-Organist Mr Gunga and walked to our first venue, Sint Walburg's, to rehearse for our evening concert. Our 8pm concert was enjoyed by a warm and enthusiastic audience who were treated to music by Byrd, Amner, Purcell, Parsons, Mendelssohn, MacDonald and Parry plus two encores! You can read a review here. https://klassiek-centraal.be/portsmouth-cathedral-choir-sint-walburgiskerk-antwerpen/
We were up bright and early to rehearse at Antwerp Cathedral where we were able to sing the Widor Mass accompanied by their own Organist on the West Organ and Mr Gunga on the East End organ with us in between – a truly authentic and thrilling experience.
Then onto the train to Mechelen where we were to rehearse for a special evensong – but first a trip up the Cathedral West Tower – 538 steps for a view across all of Belgium. We sang Choral Evensong at 6pm to mark the 100th Anniversary of 'The Malines Conversations' – a set of conferences that were the first efforts at ecumenical relations between the Roman Catholic Church and The Church of England.
A new Magnificat and Nunc dimittis – 'The Latin Canticles' Sorores in spe (sisters in hope) had been composed for the occasion by George Richford and sounded wonderful in the glorious cathedral space and virtuosic playing from Mr Gunga. A well earned and hearty Italian meal straight afterwards with thanks to our inimitable and generous host Dirk who fixes all our Belgian tours, and then we were on our way back to Antwerp.
We were packed and ready early on Monday for a trip to Lier for a morning in Lago AquaPark and then the train to Brussels and on to St Pancras – one final set of walks and lugging of 30 sets of music and robes by the scholar and older boys but pleased in the knowledge too that our carbon footprint was 30% less than our last trip to Belgium.
Thank you to everyone who came – our choristers sang superbly and coped magnificently with the pace and energy required of them; our fabulous set of scholars who sang wonderful solos and helped look after the boys, our talented Lay Clerks and dextrous organists Mr Gunga and Mr Chin, Canons Jo and Angela for representing us all so well, and finally to Mrs Forder, Mrs Sewell and Sydney for ensuring the boys were cared for and made sure the tour ran smoothly.