Senior Girls and Scholars
Conductor – Thomas Leech
Piano – David Grealy
Leeds Cathedral Choir is made up of seven separate choirs with its membership of around 150 drawn from our whole-class school singing sessions in the Diocese of Leeds Schools Singing Programme: the Children’s Choir, for children in the early years of primary school; the Junior Boys Choir and Junior Girls Choirs for children aged 7–11; the Senior Boys Choir and Senior Girls Choir, for children aged 10 and above; the Schools Scholars, for boys with changing voices; and the Choral Scholars, a select group of university and conservatoire students. The senior choirs and scholars sing for the daily choral services of Vespers and Mass at the Cathedral, broadcast regularly on national BBC radio and television, have made many recordings, and take part in tours, concerts and projects with internationally-renowned choral groups, including the Gabrieli Consort and The Sixteen.
The performance at the abcd Convention will be given by the Senior Girls and Scholars, and feature music from their liturgical repertoire from Gregorian Chant to new commissions.
The Diocese of Leeds Schools Singing Programme is recognised as the UK’s leading Catholic singing provision. The programme reaches around 6,500 children across the Diocese every week, both during and outside the school day in over 150 choral groups, including boys’ and girls’ choirs in Bradford, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Keighley, Pontefract, Ripon, Skipton and Wakefield, together with the choirs of Leeds Cathedral. The Catholic Faith is at the heart of all our provision; lifting voices together to God we enrich the children’s faith, evangelise and teach, singing the rich heritage of Catholic sacred music. The schools and choral work during the pandemic received a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Inspiration Award, with our digital singing sessions and virtual choir recordings receiving over 95,000 views on YouTube. Our choirs, which draw their membership from our whole-class school singing session, sing for Masses and other liturgies, broadcast regularly on national BBC radio and television, have made many recordings, and take part in tours, concerts and projects with internationally-renowned choral groups including the Gabrieli Consort and The Sixteen.