Since the beginning of November the choristers of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral Choir have been back in action, having waited for the guidelines to allow this for several months. In addition to this, a new group of Junior Lay Vicars Choral has been formed.

Peter Stobart, Director of Music at the Cathedral, writes:

As usual the choristers are singing as groups of boys and girls but in pods and distanced from the adult Lay Vicars Choral. Happily there are some new recruits, and those who were new at the beginning of 2020 have now got the opportunity to sing properly and develop their voices under relatively normal circumstances.

A large number of boys underwent changes to their voices over the lockdown period and they have now emerged as either tenors or basses. They are singing under the title of Junior Lay Vicars Choral and are enjoying getting to grips with the new challenge of singing in these new voice parts.

While this is extremely positive, a large hole has been left in the numbers of younger boys and so recruitment in that area has been vital. The new girls and boys have been enjoying learning how to process properly, how to hold their folders and juggle all of the various pieces of paper contained within them, as well as tackling the singing itself.

Because of the logistics of distancing, both boys and girls are singing at Evensong services, with the girls on Fridays and the boys on Sunday afternoons. The adult Lay Vicars Choral and Junior Lay Vicars sing at the Sunday morning Choral Eucharist and this is unlikely to change over the next few months.