Girl Choristers Trip to London 2024

Director of music James tells us about the recent trip to London with the girl choristers.

We set off from Truro on 18 October bright and early and arrived at Royal Holloway after lunch. We were given a campus tour by choir members Hannah and Brook and then had a brilliant workshop with Rupert Gough and The Choir of Royal Holloway. We sang Stanford’s ‘A song of wisdom’, and then worked on our ensemble skills in Byrd’s ‘Sing Joyfully’ and ‘Justorum animae’. It was a pleasure to hear the Royal Holloway choir sing for us too, and to learn about their ethos and their current projects. Thank you so much to Rupert Gough and the choir for being so welcoming and inspiring us. We then headed into central London, taking an energetic walk over Tower Bridge to make it to Pizza Express in time for our food!

On the next day, we started by exploring Covent Garden, and the girls had some free time to do some shopping. We then looked around the Tate Modern before putting our work hats on for our Evensong jointly with St Paul's Cathedral Choir Vicars Choral. We sang Howells’ Gloucester Service and Bairstow’s ‘Blessed city, heavenly Salem’; it was a privilege to work with St Paul’s’ Director of Music, Andrew Carwood, and it was an honour to sing in such a prestigious venue. At dinner, we caught up with composer Gabriel Jackson, who has a long association with Truro Cathedral Choir, and we were also reunited with former music teacher Mr Thomson! Back at our accommodation, we wound down with some board games - Mrs Gregory had a decisive victory in the staff scrabble!

On Sunday, we stoked ourselves up with a large, cooked breakfast in London, before heading to Cambridge. We had some free time to explore the city centre, and we then prepared for our joint Evensong with The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge and former Truro director of music, Christopher Gray. We sang Sasha Johnson Manning’s Responses (written for Truro), Ruth Gipps’ Canticles, and a setting of Psalm 67 by Peter Aston. It was inspiring to sing with St John’s Choir, in what must be one of the best acoustics for singing in the country, and it was great as always to hear their choir in such sparkling form! Afterwards, the girls were rewarded with a tour tradition - a trip to Byron Burger: with lots of calories replenished after a busy day, we all got a good night’s sleep.

We began our last day in Cambridge with a punting trip along the river Cam. Under the expertise of myself and John (one of the St John’s Choir Lay Clerks) we meandered down the river and learned about some of the history of the city. We also met some friendly ducks! Travelling to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, we prepared for our final singing commitment of the trip. Tim Travers-Brown (Windsor Lay Clerk and former Truro singing teacher) warmed us up before we headed into the chapel for our rehearsal. We were very lucky to have Luke Bond (assistant director of music at Windsor and formerly of Truro) playing the organ for us; we sang Sumsion’s Canticles in G and Stanford’s ‘A song of wisdom.’

It was a wonderful Evensong to round off a great trip, and we all had a fantastic time. Many thanks to Mrs Vaughan for all her organisation and support, trip staff Mrs Gregory and Mrs Ellison, and most importantly to the girls who were brilliant ambassadors for Truro Cathedral and for Cornwall throughout.

James Anderson-Besant
Director of Music

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