Musical Depression (2)

Ripon Cathedral

Ripon Cathedral Choir School has closed. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, this counts as a relatively minor blip; unless of course you happen to be attending the school, working there or trying to sort out the provision for choral music in Ripon Cathedral. It is very sad when such traditional bastions of our choral heritage become unworkable. Attempts to merge the school with a local one have foundered.

It looks as if the cathedral has moved to another model entirely for the choral provision. A new choral foundation encompasses 24 boy choristers, 24 girl choristers from the local area rather than from a choir school and six lay clerks. The Ripon Cathedral website reads very upbeat and we wish them well in their new enterprise.