How former Sheffield Cathedral choristers have been serving the community through highs and lows

Last summer in July, the Anglican cathedral in the city centre announced it wanted to disband the current choir to make way for new singing ensembles more appropriate for Sheffield’s ‘mixed urban community’.

Choristers of the Sheffield cathedral who were abruptly dismissed under ‘mysterious circumstances’ launched a new choir led by the cathedral’s former master of music, Joshua Stevens.

Kate Caroe, Communications lead for Steel City Choristers, said: “It was under rather mysterious circumstances, people didn’t really understand why they’d closed the choir, it was completely unexpected.

“All the former members of the choir have basically stuck together and formed the Steel City choristers Under Joshua Stevens who was the Director of Music at the cathedral, So, we’ve just carried on independently.

“It’s quite fun actually doing it up ourselves because we are quite passionate about choral singing, and we want to make it more accessible to people and not being in, not being in the cathedral means that it is a bit more accessible because it’s not as imposing a building and we can do more.”

Over the Christmas period, the group took part in the ‘On Your Own Doorstep’ project with neighbours, singers and musicians from all across the city joining in to sing carols throughout December.

The steel city choristers pre-recorded Christmas Carols so that people could listen beforehand and sing along to the tracks.

“It was a really big project; It was on radio four and the world service. The lady who organised it, Alex Jones interviewed her, and they played one of the Steel City Chorister’s tracks on Radio Four,” says Kate.

Another project saw them partner with the social inclusion charity, the Parson’s cross initiative, to sing carols at their allotment as part of a community singing event.

One of the trebles, Peter Caroe, also sang at a socially-distanced wedding in October at Holy Trinity Millhouses, and attracted the attention of The bridegroom’s Grandmother, who was ‘very encouraging’ and ‘kind’ to him before he sang.

She sadly passed away, and the family asked Peter to record two songs for her funeral, which was held last week at Peterborough Cathedral – He sang The Lord’s my Shepherd and Abide with Me, specially recorded for her family.

The choir are hoping to start singing again after the lockdown and have recently partnered with the Sheffield Music Hub, which is the council’s music provision for schools across the city.

They are keen to keep the English choral tradition alive in Sheffield and are reaching out to more diverse communities with their choral singing.

Kate added: “We just want to sing together and encourage more people to think about joining us and singing in choirs because it’s really good for emotional wellbeing.

“We’d like people in Sheffield to find out about what we’re doing because, at the cathedral, we didn’t get many people coming to the services.

“I think we can get out there and help people where they are.”

The choir is currently recruiting – go to https://https://steelcitychoristers.org or visit their Facebook page: Steel City Choristers

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