I never had the chance to be a chorister at an Anglican church choir before I came to university to study music, having not grown up around such opportunities. So, when both a church and cathedral approached the fresher's events, advertising for paid choral scholarships, it caught my attention. However, there was always something that confused me about the positions they offered. I am a soprano singer, my top range has always been my forte and where my tone of voice is at its clearest and most pleasant, I can sing alto and enjoy it, but I have to work harder. The choral scholarships were offered to bass, tenor, and alto – two singers per voice part – to be paid X amount of money for around five 1-hour services a week. The churches also offered their ‘Consort group’, ‘Schola Cantorum’, ‘Ladies Choir’, which ever name you prefer, for women over 18 to sing occasionally at services throughout the year, which is not a paid position.  

Now at this point, I’m just as baffled as you are. What about Sopranos? Why no scholarships for us? I was a little afraid to ask as I was new to this realm of sacred music. I was worried that the musical directors would chuckle and say “Soprano choral scholarship? Whoever heard of that!” and that they would explain the perfectly logical reason behind not having female adult Sopranos in church choirs. Well, I waited four months for this answer, and by Christmas time I was getting frustrated at the lack of attention to this issue, and the lack of transparency more generally in the sacred music industry. So finally, I asked a musical director who had worked with church choirs before. The answer, to say the least, was disappointing.  

In short, the young, treble voices of boy choristers and the adult male voice is more favourable and musically pleasing than those of adult sopranos, some of whom have been coached vocally for most of their lives. Although there is a growing presence of adolescent girls' choirs in the church – for example, both church choirs I took interest in joining had one – the mere idea of a group of adult female singers is not well received across the board. Comparatively, the Campaign for the Traditional Cathedral Choir (CTCC) is an organisation dedicated entirely to preserving the “ancient tradition of the all-male choir”, and to “encourage parish churches which maintain, or seek to establish, all-male choirs." Their website here.

The articles published on this site are rife with misogyny and ignorance, as if the female voice is as big a threat as nuclear war. An incredibly biased article featured on the site by Dr Bernarr Rainbow and others, inappropriately named Cathedral Choirs – New Directions, debates whether girls' choirs should be present in the Anglican Church. The article talks of female voices having disastrous consequences for the tradition of all-male choirs: 

“Already, some 24% of major cathedrals have a girls' choir. As we argue below, this is a development which threatens the all-male tradition... Unless careful thought is given to the larger picture, disaster lies ahead.” 

The use of statistics and emotive language, such as “threatens,” and “disaster lies ahead”, is a format consistently used by organisation, and I find it astonishing that they can get away with such prejudice and discrimination with no sound reasoning as to why female voices are such a bad omen.  

Luckily, it's not all doom and gloom, as the Guardian published an encouraging and insightful article about how girls' choirs in the church have been on the rise for good since the early 2000’s and exposed how all-male choirs have appropriated plenty of music by renowned composers such as Tallis and Byrd, which were originally written for either mixed or female voices. The article can be read here.

Every year at Christmas and Easter time, I tune in to the BBC to watch the services held at various Cathedrals all around the country and I am always delighted to see a growing proportion of girls of all ages in the choirs. However, the most renowned service held at Kings college in Cambridge every Christmas Eve, has been all-male since its first broadcast in 1928, and unfortunately it feels as if this will never be challenged. I am in no way undermining the choir itself and the talent they possess – they are all incredible singers and work hard for every album they record and concert they perform. Yet, when young girls– including myself - see the broadcasts every year, nobody ever explains (or seems to have an answer) as to why there are never any girls singing at these services. It is completely unfair to exclude a gender from an area of music in which they have both the ability and the right to partake in without a logical argument for it.  

It is not just the sacred Cathedral choir that lacks in women. The organ scholarships available at any Cathedral across the UK, although never advertised as just for men, are largely so. This is also the case for Choir Master and Director of Music roles across the UK. This is due to the fact, most organ scholars and music directors are men who have previously been a boy chorister at the church they take the position at, or have at least been one in another Cathedral, making the working musical environment seem close knit, inaccessible to ‘outsiders’ like myself, and elitist.  

The Cathedral Choir of Leeds currently has 5 choirs that rotate services they sing at, including a girls' choir. They also appoint senior sopranos and offer soprano choral scholarships for their adult choirs. This is a perfect example of a working system where both boy trebles, girl sopranos, and adult sopranos can all perform regularly at the same cathedral, without any discrepancies on gender and performance time. In order for sacred music to move on from a time of discrimination and elitism, there must be a welcome of all female singers into the church choirs where services can be shared and performed together throughout the week. This would immediately create more jobs for adult women musicians like myself, where I can earn the status of professional musicianship and perform the music I truly love. I am not asking for a complete do-over of all Cathedral choirs across the UK, nor asking for boy trebles to be disbanded. I am asking for an open and fair attitude towards female singers of all ages within cathedrals, where services and work are shared equally, and we are not just ‘guest singers’ (as I have been referred to in an adult soprano church choir by one of the Priests). We are a vital part of the music making and we want to be respected as professional musicians. The progress made across the country in recent years has been encouraging for female singers, and I can only hope by spreading the word that this trend continues. And that the girl watching the celestial musical performances on TV or at the Cathedral, will be able to pursue her dream and be a part of these fantastic choirs without facing prejudice.