History of the Music at St. Paul's Cathedral

St Paul’s Cathedral has had a choir since the early 19th century. The first choirmaster was one Frederick Peters and he led a mixed-voice choir at the cathedral – the singers were his brother and two sisters, together with another two men accompanied in each case by their own two sisters, making a total of eight singers in all (three men and six women).

Although the Anglican traditional practice over many centuries has been for all-male church and cathedral choirs, a practice which grew out of the earlier monastic traditions, there were also female voices in St Paul’s Cathedral choir in the 1950s although it was a short-lived deviation from the tradition.

In 1983, then Director of Music, Mervyn Games, again opened the choir up to girls as there was “simply not enough interested boys to keep the ranks full” and he believed that girls should have the opportunity to be exposed to the musical and life skills training that comes with the requirements to be a cathedral chorister.

This has been the practice at St Paul’s since that time and training for choristers is open to both boys and girls, usually from the age of 8, following a simple audition and an assurance of the necessary time commitment by the parents.

For a list of organists that we currently know about, please click here and if you can provide any further information, we would be delighted to hear from you as we gather more historical data on the music at St Paul’s.

Click here to contact the Music Department

Past Organists and Choirmasters