The girls' choir Frideswide Voices of Christ Church, recently adopted as a permanent part of the choral foundation of the College and Cathedral, takes up residence at the Cathedral on Wednesday.
Frideswide Voices was established in 2014 as the first choir in Oxford for girls of chorister age (7-14) to sing the Anglican liturgy in college chapels and the Cathedral. For the past three years the choir has sung termly residencies at Christ Church, New College and Magdalen.
From September 2019 the girls, who are drawn from more than 25 different schools across the city and county, will gather in Christ Church twice a week to rehearse and receive tuition in singing and a wider musical education. They will sing Evensong in the Cathedral once a week.
The girls will be formally welcomed at Choral Evensong on Wednesday 18 September at 6pm, when their new Director of Music, Helen Smee (right), will also be commissioned in her new role. They will be singing Ben Parry's Ely service and Bach's Mein gläubiges Herze.
The formal adoption of the girls’ choir means there will now be four choirs singing throughout the year at the Cathedral, each with its distinct identity. As well as the long-established Cathedral Choir, founded in 1525 and made up of boy choristers and a mix of Academical and Lay Clerks, the Cathedral Singers sing around 100 services a year, and the College choir sings regularly during term-time.
