THE P RTAL
October 2016 Page 21
Being a Chorister at Westminster Cathedral
Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane met up with two boys who have personal experience
We travelled to rural Wiltshire , a beautiful county . But we were not there to admire the scenery . Our task was to meet with one particular family , where two of their boys are Choristers at Westminster
Cathedral . Well , one – Lukas is there now and the older boy , Julian , has just left . Lukas is 9 and Julian is 13 .
Julian started in the summer term of 2012 . He was a kind of probationer until late November and then he was inducted into the choir . Since then he has been on tours to Italy and Hungary . He was also part of the choir ’ s famous audience with the Holy Father , where they sang for him .
Julian told us , “ I ’ ve been singing eight services a week , including Vespers and school Mass . The boys in my year , as we were leaving , calculated we must have done 1600 services in our time in total .”
Jackie wondered how you qualify to be a Chorister . Julian told us that he was turned down by Salisbury Cathedral because he had not had any music lessons . “ My mum took me to a man called Colin Howard who lives in Salisbury . He taught me music and I went to an informal audition at Westminster Cathedral . Mr Baker ( Martin Baker , the Director of Music ) invited me to the next step , which is the formal audition . I prepared and was then accepted , as there was a space in our year .
“ For my informal piece I sang ‘ Good King Wenceslas ’ and for my formal I sang an English hymn called ‘ Now the Green Blade Rises ’. After this , he played , mainly , three-fingered chords and you have to choose the top or the bottom note . You don ’ t sing the middle one because that ’ s much trickier , but he did ask a couple of those .
“ Then to test my reading , he gave me a sheet of paper on which there were really simple sentences and some which were towards the tongue-twisting end of the scale , not very tricky , and asked me to read some of the sentences just to see whether or not I could actually read .”
Younger brother , Lukas , had a similar audition . He has got to the point of doing a year as a Probationer . To prove he would make a good Probationer he had to practice every morning , except for Wednesdays . “ I
had to do a practice in the morning and I need to go to Mass every day like Julian , but not with the choir . For my audition , I sang ‘ Away in a Manger ’.” Lukas told us that he enjoys the singing .
Julian told us about the day to day life of a Chorister . “ Wake up at 6.45am , 15 minutes to get changed into uniform . Breakfast at 7-7.30am . Music practice from 7.30-8am . From 8am we have 10 minutes to brush our teeth . From 8.10am we would have a song school until 9-9.15am . After that , rehearsal and assembly and from then on it ’ s the academic day .
“ This begins at 9.15am and carries on until 3.45pm at which point the day ends and you have around 15 minutes to play outside and have a piece of cake for tea . From 4-4.25pm you have Prep , which is basically homework , and then from 4.25 you go down to the song school , and have a 15 minute sing through of each piece with the men of the choir . You go and get changed at around 4.45-4.50 so you have 15 minutes to get vested into cassock , cotta , starched collar , which is pretty uncomfortable , and a black tie which would cover the silver button which you slip through your shirt .