The Choir of St Mary’s was founded in 1879 to provide choral music for the daily services at Edinburgh’s new St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, with its own choir school.  This tradition, of singing regular weekday and Sunday services in the Cathedral, continues to this day, the only place in Scotland to do so. 

 

The choir comprises the choristers (aged 9-14) who all attend St Mary’s Music School, and up to twelve lay clerks and choral scholars. In 1978 the Cathedral allowed girls to join boys as choristers, the first cathedral in the UK with a similar pattern of services to do so.

 

In addition to singing services at St Mary’s the choir is well known for its recording work, concerts, and broadcasts.  Recent recordings have included single-composer discs from Tudor England (Taverner, Sheppard and Mundy respectively), Bruckner (a Gramophone Recommended Recording), contemporary composer Gabriel Jackson, Stravinsky (with instrumentalists from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra), and Kenneth Leighton, celebrating the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of the former Edinburgh Professor of Music (5* from BBC Music Magazine).  Three of the discs were Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine.  The choir will be recording again with Delphian Records in May 2023.