Chichester Cathedral concert marks an important moment of change

Music by Vaughan Williams, Vivaldi, Parry, Wesley, Fauré, Goodall, Burgon, Franck and Lloyd Webber is on the programme as James Parker and Inigo Abbott Barrington, both aged 13, join voices to mark a new era.

They have been singing together for five years and are about to leave the choir as they move on to their senior schools.

As Inigo’s dad Robert says: “Girls will be joining the choir from September and the change is absolutely a good thing.

"It is moving with the times but as with any really long historical tradition, it is an event when something like that changes.

"And I do think that there is an awareness of a new era.

"From September the girls will be there and it is going to feel different so for the boys this is a concert of goodbyes – goodbye to their time as choristers, goodbye to their voices as they are now because they won't be like that in a year's time and also goodbye to a thousand years of tradition in Chichester.”

The concert is in Chichester Cathedral on Saturday, July 9 at 6.30pm, lasting approximately 45 minutes. Evensong with the full choir takes place before the concert from 5.30-6.15pm.

“I do think it is very unusual for two choristers to do a concert but they came up with the idea themselves, just chatting and my son came to me and said ‘Can we make this happen?’

"It reminded me quite how busy and complicated the life of the cathedral is in terms of getting the boys to decide what they were going to sing and getting the music and getting the organist and doing the publicity. And they have also got the Southern Cathedrals Festival coming up.

"It is all very busy.

“Partly for this concert they will be doing stuff that they sang with the whole choir over the years, pieces that they both really liked.

"There is a bit of Wesley, a duet that they have often sung and also bits that they prepared for their music scholarships. They are both going on to music scholarships at other places after this. And there is also a piece of Vivaldi that they have sung together.

“Inigo has had a fantastic time. From a young age he was very musical and he's just thrived in that environment where they're doing something like 25 hours a week on practice and services. He's really loved it.

“The pandemic was very difficult. They sang together a bit online which is not the same at all. Inigo did a lot of piano playing but not singing.

"It was interesting when they came back in a break between two lockdowns and Chichester was chosen for the Radio 3 Evensong slot.

"They did a stupendous Evensong. There was a feeling that they were unleashing what had been stored up for so long and then of course they went back into lockdown.

"But they certainly had a fantastic time as choristers.”

Free entry.

There will be a retiring collection to help raise money for charities chosen by the boys.