Biography
In Presbyterian Scotland, the Choir of St. Mary's Cathedral stands alone among Edinburgh ensembles in providing music for daily Anglican worship. Its concerts and discs have earned acclaim far beyond Britain, while the group led the way nationally by bringing girls into the treble line in 1978 and women into the alto section in 2006—the first British cathedral choir to do so.
At the West End church, musical activity dates from its construction in the closing decades of the nineteenth century; the Father Henry Willis organ installed in 1879 remains the work of the era's foremost British organ builder. Today's ensemble comprises boy and girl choristers together with lay clerks and choral scholars. The cathedral operates its own school expressly for the choristers, who prepare morning and evening around their academic timetable before taking part in the 5:30 p.m. service each day. The lay clerks sing professionally, while the choral scholars are drawn largely from Edinburgh's universities.
The choir has traveled widely beyond Scotland and the United Kingdom, performing in Germany in 2015 and across the American South in 2018, and it also appears regularly in the Edinburgh Festival. The inclusion of female voices has lent the ensemble a distinctive timbre that distinguishes it from other British cathedral choirs and has opened additional recording projects.
Its first disc, Famous Hymns of Praise, appeared on Priory Records in 1991; further releases followed on that label and on Herald before the move to Delphian in 2003 with A Gaelic Blessing. Under Duncan Ferguson, who has held the posts of organist and master of music since 2008, the choir has continued to issue both Renaissance and contemporary repertoire on Delphian. A 2018 recording devoted to the sixteenth-century English composer William Mundy was followed, after Ferguson remained in his dual role into the following decade, by Kenneth Leighton: Sacred Choral Works in 2020 and, following the pandemic interruption, a 2024 account of John Stainer's oratorio The Crucifixion.
At the West End church, musical activity dates from its construction in the closing decades of the nineteenth century; the Father Henry Willis organ installed in 1879 remains the work of the era's foremost British organ builder. Today's ensemble comprises boy and girl choristers together with lay clerks and choral scholars. The cathedral operates its own school expressly for the choristers, who prepare morning and evening around their academic timetable before taking part in the 5:30 p.m. service each day. The lay clerks sing professionally, while the choral scholars are drawn largely from Edinburgh's universities.
The choir has traveled widely beyond Scotland and the United Kingdom, performing in Germany in 2015 and across the American South in 2018, and it also appears regularly in the Edinburgh Festival. The inclusion of female voices has lent the ensemble a distinctive timbre that distinguishes it from other British cathedral choirs and has opened additional recording projects.
Its first disc, Famous Hymns of Praise, appeared on Priory Records in 1991; further releases followed on that label and on Herald before the move to Delphian in 2003 with A Gaelic Blessing. Under Duncan Ferguson, who has held the posts of organist and master of music since 2008, the choir has continued to issue both Renaissance and contemporary repertoire on Delphian. A 2018 recording devoted to the sixteenth-century English composer William Mundy was followed, after Ferguson remained in his dual role into the following decade, by Kenneth Leighton: Sacred Choral Works in 2020 and, following the pandemic interruption, a 2024 account of John Stainer's oratorio The Crucifixion.
Albums
Stainer: The Crucifixion
2024
Great Cathedral Anthems, Vol. 8
2020
Kenneth Leighton: Sacred Choral Works
2020
John Sheppard: Sacred Choral Music
2014
Bruckner Motets
2011
John Taverner: Sacred Choral Music
2011
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Sacred Choral Works
2006
Gabriel Jackson: Sacred Choral Works
2005
Ascension
2003
A Gaelic Blessing
2002