Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Farewell to talented choristers
Canterbury Cathedral said goodbye on Sunday to a group of choristers whose voices have been filling the building for the last few years.
On a day known traditionally as “Sob Sunday”, three boy choristers, who have sung for the last five years, and five founding members of the girls’ choir were thanked for their contribution to Cathedral life.
Dr David Flood, the Cathedral’s director of music, said: “To be a chorister is a major commitment for our boys and we are always sorry when their time with us at Canterbury Cathedral comes to an end.
“But we hope that for them and for the first members of our girls’ choir we have provided an experience they will never forget and have set them on a course to develop further their musical ability.”
The five girls – Ffion Green, Poppy Braddy, Saskia Jamieson Bibb, Laura Nicholson and Ellen Spurling – have been members of the girls’ choir since its formation in 2013 and have sung at services and concerts, including at Clare College, Cambridge, Merton College, Oxford, and Rochester and Westminster Cathedrals.
Under the directorship of Cathedral assistant organist Dr David Newsholme, they sang in front of the Queen in March 2015 when the royal statues were unveiled and were involved in recording the CD – Henry Purcell Sacred Music – which was released earlier this year.
One of their final contributions to Canterbury Cathedral music was on Sunday when they sang at the morning Eucharist service at which an orchestra also played.
The boys – Frankie Shepley, James Press and Henry Bersey – sang at their last service as chorister members of the Cathedral choir on Sunday afternoon.
With Freddie Rupp, who could not be there on Sunday, they have all been choristers at the Cathedral since the age of eight where they have lived in Choir House in the Cathedral Precincts and attended St Edmund’s Junior School in Canterbury during term-time.
Dr David Flood said: “Our former senior lay clerk Duncan Perkins, who sang with the Cathedral Choir for more than 30 years and who sadly died in 2014, left some money, among a number of gifts to the Cathedral Choir, with the specific request of a liturgical Mass with small orchestra.
“We fulfilled this on Sunday, when the orchestra – largely made up from choir parents both current and former and also some recent ex-choristers played.”
With the choir the four have sung in many hundreds of services during their years, performed in countless concerts and enjoyed tours to America and Norway. Their voices have been recorded for a CD of Evensong music and on a new CD to be released later this year.