Moment of history for Chichester Cathedral Choir on CFT stage

But there will be two significant changes this year. It’s the band of His Majesty’s Royal Marines, not Her Majesty’s; and among the cathedral choir, for the first time at these concerts, there will be at least one girl chorister – following the historic change to the choir’s composition this year.

Charles Harrison, organist and master of the choristers at Chichester Cathedral, is delighted at the natural way that the boys and girls have merged in their music-making: “I think what I was worried about more than anybody else was how the social dynamic would work and what it would be like for the girls being in a minority for the first few years but the fact is that it has gone really smoothly. The boys just seemed to think it was all completely normal and saw absolutely nothing to worry about and the girls have fitted in brilliantly and in a very self-assured way. And they seem to be absolutely untroubled by being in the minority for the moment.

“I never worried about questions of vocal blend because their voices are fundamentally quite similar for the girls and the boys at that age but I had no experience of what the social dynamic would be. But it's actually been very happy. It just feels very natural and the music making is just wonderful. And the great thing is that the changes have opened up the opportunity to twice as many people as we used to have to be part of the choir. It just feels absolutely right.”

Making it even more special is the fact that the Chichester Festival Theatre Christmas concerts are always a favourite time of year: “The link between the theatre and the cathedral goes back a long way and there's a great weight of history behind this tradition but the benefit also to us is that the choir are on stage face to face with an audience. The choir are usually in collegiate formation facing each other, and they are usually singing as part of the worship rather than as a concert performance. But for these shows they are on stage face to face with about 1,200 people in the audience. But I've never heard any choristers say that that is intimidating. I think it just feels very exciting for them, and to be on the thrust stage like that, it almost feels like being embraced by the audience. They are always very excited about it and the choristers absolutely love it though by the end of the week the excitement is getting to the point where they are perhaps getting a little bit tired… and we do have to make slight adjustments to the timetable!”

Also part of the fun: “There is usually some repertoire that we would not usually think of performing in the cathedral. I think the best music for the Festival Theatre concerts is really buoyant and joyful. In the Christmas carol services in the cathedral we have to think more of ensuring the balance and to take into account the readings and offer quite an emotional range but what the audience wants at the Festival Theatre is to be entertained. You need to have a lot of energy and colour to do that so it certainly does mean that we can do some slightly different things.”