The Parish Church of St Nicholas, Newcastle upon Tyne may only have been raised to Cathedral status in 1882, but the church has been part of the English Choral tradition since at least the sixteenth century.
The History of The Choir
In 1503, Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry VII and engaged to marry James IV of Scotland, passed through Newcastle on her way north.
When crossing the bridge over the Tyne there were a number of children in surplices:
“who sang melodious hymns, accompanying themselves with instruments of many sorts”.
Members
Newcastle Cathedral Choir is currently made up of fourteen Choristers and fourteen Lay-clerks and Choral Scholars.
The Cathedral has no choir school, but has just been made an associate member of the Choir Schools Association.
The boys are drawn from a variety of schools throughout the city, thus enjoying all the benefits of a cathedral choristership while remaining in their family environment.
The Lay-clerks come from a diverse background of employment and the Choral Scholars are drawn from the local universities.
Performances
As well as singing five services every week the Choir regularly gives concerts and broadcasts (with a welcome recent return to Radio 3 Choral Evensong) and since 2002 has given concerts with a number of prestigious orchestras and artists including the Northern Sinfonia, Fine Arts Brass, Sir Roger Norrington, Simon Halsey, organ virtuosi Carlo Curley, Wayne Marshall and David Briggs, and the world famous ’cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber.
Tours
In July 2004 the choir toured Malta having been invited to take part in the Victoria Arts Festival on Gozo and plans are in hand for further tours abroad including Norway in 2007.
Musical Releases
In 2003, the Choir recorded its first CD in a number of years with the Regent label, ‘Glory Revealed’, and in 2005 the Choir recorded Volume 20 in Priory Records’ complete survey of The New English Hymnal.
In October 2006 the Choir released Les Grandes Messes de Paris, a disc of fantastic French music (available on Regent) and in December 2006 a further disc was released featuring favourite and less well known music for Christmas, The Gift, a Christmas Present from Newcastle Cathedral.
