Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir inspires the next generation

There were smiles all round when girls with a love of singing got to experience a day in the life of a member of Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir.

Around 20 girls from across the region – and some from further afield – visited King’s Ely and Ely Cathedral on October 21^st for ‘Be A Girl Chorister For A Day’.

The annual event gives girls aged 9 to 16 and from all walks of life the chance to see what it is like to be a girl chorister. The event featured an action-packed programme of activities including rehearsals with the current girl choristers, tours of the girls’ boarding house and Choral Evensong at the cathedral, where the stalls were bursting with a choir more than double its usual size.

Director of ECGC, Sarah MacDonald, said: “I was delighted to work with a group of such incredibly enthusiastic and talented girls. They were committed and professional throughout the whole day and sang beautifully in the cathedral for the final service.”

King’s Ely has educated the boy choristers of Ely Cathedral for over 1,000 years. Early in the new millennium, a girls’ choir was founded to complement the boys’ choir, and to enable the cathedral to hold choral services every day of the week in term time. Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir (ECGC) sang its first cathedral service in November 2006 and has since become firmly established as a central part of the cathedral community.

As well as singing their share of cathedral services, ECGC has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums and has performed in prestigious venues, including Westminster Abbey and the Guards’ Chapel in London, and la Cathédrale Notre Dame and l’Église St Eustache in Paris.

All members of ECGC are boarders at King’s Ely. Choristers receive a specialist musical education and are treated as skilled musicians from the beginning, interacting and performing with professional singers, organists and conductors on a daily basis.

By the time they leave King’s Ely, they will have gained the expertise and experience needed to carry on to university choral scholarships (recent girl choristers have received choral scholarship offers from Cambridge, Oxford, Royal Holloway, and Durham), professional musical careers, or any other path they might wish to follow. They will have acquired an in-depth and knowledgeable appreciation of the architectural, musical and liturgical heritage of our country, and will have developed the invaluable transferable skills of discipline, dedication, and diligence which will provide them with significant rewards and advantages for the rest of their lives.