Christmas with Truro Cathedral Choir

Truro Cathedral Choir has an unbroken tradition dating back to the 1880s, when services took place in a wooden shed while John Loughborough Pearson’s cathedral was under construction. Today, the choir usually performs with either its junior choristers or its senior choristers, joined by its twelve adult professional singers. The adult professional singers usually comprise seven lay vicars (permanent members of the choir) and five choral scholars (pre- or post-university students from all over the country and further afield). The junior choristers are aged 8 to 13, and the senior choristers are aged 13 to 18; all attend Truro School and its preparatory school, where scholarships and bursaries are available, with the aim that selection is based purely on ability. As well as singing at seven services each week, the choir undertakes regular concerts, broadcasts, webcasts, foreign tours, and CD recordings. The choir has appeared on BBC1, BBC2, BBC4, and ITV, as well as taking part in regular live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. In May 2023, Truro were among the first girl choristers in history to sing at a British coronation, performing alongside other world-class musicians for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Westminster Abbey. The choir’s recordings have included single-composer discs of music by Maurice Duruflé, Louis Vierne, Benjamin Britten, Philip Stopford, Gabriel Jackson, Dobrinka Tabakova and Russell Pascoe. A wealth of new music has been written specifically for the choir by many of the UK’s leading composers.