Truro Cathedral today announced important changes to its boys’ choir after 138 years:
From September, girls aged 8 – 13 will be welcomed into Truro Cathedral Choir for the first time and are invited to apply as part of an exciting additional round of recruitment for 2025, widening access opportunities to all children.
Truro Cathedral Choir has an unbroken tradition dating back to the 1880s, when services took place in a wooden shed while John Loughborough Pearson’s cathedral was under construction. 2015 marked a significant milestone when girls aged 13-18 years were welcomed into the chorister programme for the first time, enriching the Cathedral’s musical life and laying the foundation for greater inclusivity. Building on that legacy, and as a result of being in the position to facilitate additional places, the cathedral is pleased to open its chorister programme (ages 8–13) to children of all genders. This development will, over time, create a fully mixed-gender chorister group.
A disgruntled boy’s parent tells slippedisc.com: ‘By way of background, this is not due to recruitment problems (there is no shortage of willing boys in Cornwall. Rather, Truro School (an independent school which works in partnership with the Cathedral) was inspected by the ISI and they concluded that the school was failing to meet the requirements of the Equality Act by supporting a boys-only choir.
‘Males have just a small window in their lifetime when they can experience singing the top line (many of whom will be trained and inspired at this age to become our future tenors and basses – without which girls’ choirs would struggle). This is not the same for girls, yet the Equality Act seems to have no regard for this significant difference between the genders. ‘
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