Our Next event
You can download a promotional leaflet about the choir including details of our next visit to Norwich Cathedral 17-23 August 2026. This also contains information about applying for our Wingate Conducting and Playing scholarships
Scholarships
We offer ‘William Wingate’ scholarships to young people who would like to develop their skills singing, playing and conducting Cathedral Services. For details see our promotional leaflet. We are a registered Educational charity (296212). As such, we can offer subsidies to some of our members, and provide a base for educating singers and organists in their own development and appreciation of the English Choral Tradition. We can assist singers and players who, for financial reasons, could not otherwise take part in our visits.
Safeguarding
The choir has a Safeguarding Policy. We are committed to providing a safe environment for all singers, conductors and organists, young and old. Performers under 18 must join us with a nominated adult guardian. We have our own safeguarding officer; a number of choir members present at each meeting will have safeguarding responsibilities in their own churches and have undergone appropriate DBS checks and training.When did we start?
The
Cathedral Chamber Choir was founded by
Martin Hall in 1979 as “The Martin Hall Singers” and was made up
of friends, Choral Scholars, Lay Clerks, amateur,
semi-professional and professional singers. This included singers from
Oxford and Exeter Universities, and a few members of the founding group
continue to sing.
The first singing tour visited the West Country Cathedrals at Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford.
The
2019 visit to Truro Cathedral took
place in our 40th year, followed by a residency at
Portsmouth Cathedral in 2021. In 2022 Newcastle
and
Bradford, 2023 Bury St. Edmunds and Chester, 2024 Salisbury and 2025
Bristol. August 2026 will see us at Norwich Cathedral for what will be
our third visit (previously 1988 and 2007)
The
choir continues to flourish. Each
visit involves around 25-30 singers. In the 46 years since we started,
over 400 singers from all backgrounds have sung with us – many for the
first time in an English Cathedral. The number continues to grow year
by year.
Directors
The
Choir’s Director from 2026 is
Chris Pilgrim, singer, organist, teacher and a former Lay Clerk of
Chichester Cathedral. Chris read Music as an undergraduate at Trinity
Hall, Cambridge, where he was the Organ Scholar, directing and
accompanying the College’s Chapel Choir, and also regularly sang with
Queens’ College Chapel Choir. On graduating in 2012, he joined
the back row of Chichester Cathedral Choir as one of its six
professional ‘Lay Vicars’, singing as a countertenor for eight weekly
services as well as on BBC broadcasts, commercial recordings and
international tours. Chris spent three years as Musical Director of
Sandgate Singers, a choral society of 90 members based in Storrington,
West Sussex, which he combined with ongoing solo and ensemble work.
Alongside professional musical performance, Chris has found a vocation
in full-time classroom teaching, and left Chichester Cathedral Choir in
2017 to pursue this. He currently works at The Prebendal School in
Chichester (which educates the Cathedral Choristers) as Head of Maths
and ICT. He was Associate Conductor of the Cathedral Chamber Choir from
2021 to 2025.
The Assistant Director is Alex
Berry, since 2023,
Director of Music at Great St. Mary’s, Cambridge and formerly Organist
and Director of Music at Bradford Cathedral (2017-23). Alex is the
Founder and Director of the Mercian Consort and was formerly Assistant
Organist to the choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, (2015) and previous
to that, assistant organist to the Ely Cathedral Girl’s Choir. Alex was
the Principal Conductor of the Cathedral Chamber Choir from 2017 to
2025.Where does the choir come from…?
Choir
members are based all over the UK and some come from even further
afield. We come together only when we rehearse and sing at a Cathedral
city. We do not belong to any particular church, geographical area or
denomination.
Singing standard and auditions
Some
choirs that visit cathedrals
have local or regional memberships and meet regularly. However, members
of our choir come from across the UK and even further afield. Because
we only rehearse our music (some of which will almost certainly be new
to you) when we meet, people who sing with us must be competent sight
readers, with a good blended tone and well-used to singing in choirs.
Solo parts are sometimes allocated by audition on the day. When you
come to sing with us for the first time the Director may ask you to
sing something so that he or she can assess the most appropriate place
for you to stand when rehearsing and and singing services.
What is the reason for the Choir’s name…?
Our very simple name (registered in 1987 with The Charity Commission) ensures that wherever we sing, we form a natural background to the musical and liturgical setting in a place of worship, without drawing too much attention to ourselves as a group. It is the Cathedral and our contribution to its worship that is the focus for its visitors and congregation – not the choir.
Which Cathedral is represented by your Logo…?
‘The Cathedral’ in
our logo is just that – an artistic amalgam of
many
Gothic features from various buildings we have visited. You might
recognise a very tall spire, an extended West Front or a buttress – but
it is completely made up from ‘spare’ Cathedral parts by a talented
graphic artist.
If you are interested in making a charitable donation to assist our scholarship and bursary scheme (UK Registered Charity 296212), please do using our CAF donation page.