Steel City Choristers, the Sheffield charity pioneering a new grassroots cathedral-style choir, celebrates its 5th birthday

Steel City Choristers at Berlin Dom

Last week, Steel City Choristers, the Sheffield charity pioneering a new grassroots cathedral-style choir, celebrated its 5th birthday. Steel City Choristers formed following the closure of Sheffield Cathedral Choir in 2020: members wanted to keep singing together and to share their music more widely, but never thought they’d be going this strong five years later.

On Friday, the Choristers marked their 5th Birthday with a party at The Victoria in Neepsend, the city’s industrial quarter. Speeches were given, video birthday wishes were screened from supporters across the city and the choir performed directed by its director of music, Eleanor Jarvis.

The diversity of the choir’s schedule makes singing with the choir really engaging. The focus on tailoring its contribution to serve the needs of each host community makes it doubly rewarding. Music education provided to the choir’s 28 diverse choristers under the direction of Eleanor Jarvis includes twice-weekly term-time rehearsals, one-to-one singing lessons, music theory classes and small group ensemble work. The choristers, aged 6-18, come from nine Sheffield postcode areas: 37% speak another language at home; 41% are non-white; 70% are female; 15% have a special need, 86% are educated in the state sector and 14% at home. 

Since 2020, the choir has been invited to sing a huge variety of contrasting performances:

• At nine cathedrals to date, including at St Paul’s Cathedral in London and Berlin Dom
• Sharing their passions for the choral tradition at tiny places such as Hooton Roberts in Rotherham, a beautiful tiny little church threatened with closure
• On the same day they sang at both the Bishop of Sheffield’s garden party and then straight afterwards at Norwood community allotments where they sang for a summer solstice service led by a pioneer minister for social inclusion charity, PXI projects
• Introducing music for the first time at the Lord Mayor’s installation
• Singing the first ever choral service at St Swithun’s Church on Sheffield’s inner city Manor estate 
• Singing Bach’s St John Passion with English Touring Opera and St Matthew Passion with the choir of St John’s Ranmoor
• Singing at church services of all kinds for Anglican, Catholic, Anglo-Catholic churches, and for URC and Methodist churches that would never normally have a robed choir

In celebration of its fifth birthday and with a vision for a long and sustainable future, Steel City Choristers is launching a new Firm Foundation campaign with a focus on raising regular giving from committed supporters to help fund a new choir manager. 

See the choir’s website for details.