History of the choir
The choristers, both girls and boys, come from many different state schools across Liverpool and the diocese. Over the years, our choir has built a strong reputation; performing at numerous special services, concerts, broadcasts and recordings. The choir has toured extensively including some very successful recent concert tours to the USA, Malta, Germany and Portugal. The boys and girls of the choir sing most of the choral services six days a week.
Over its life span, the choir membership has included more than 2000 boys and a growing number of girls, many of whom have gone on to eminent careers including doctors, lawyers, composers, organists and directors of music. The choir has worked with many famous musicians, including former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney who, despite having failed his audition for the choir in the 1950s, returned to the Cathedral to collaborate with the choir several times - most notably in performances of the ‘Liverpool Oratorio’ and 'Ecce Cor Meum'.
The Cathedral Choir was founded when the Diocese of Liverpool was founded in 1880 and the Parish Church of Saint Peter became the first Cathedral of the Diocese. In 1904 work began on Giles Gilbert Scott’s great new Cathedral and in 1910 the first portion, the Lady Chapel, came into full use. Regular choral services in the new Cathedral, sung by a choir of boys and men began.
They sustained daily worship in the Cathedral Lady Chapel for the next fourteen years, until the first bay of the main Cathedral was completed in 1924. Daily choral services were maintained until the outbreak of the Second World War, at which time the number of choral services was reduced. The pattern of choral services six days a week was re-established with the boys and Lay Clerks singing each day apart from Wednesday. In September 2003, to mark the centenary of Scott’s Cathedral in 2004, the girls’ choir was founded. Since 2020, the choir´s adult singers now comprise six Choral Scholars and six Vicars Choral.
