Lincoln Cathedral appointed Jack Holliday in Autumn 2024 as their ‘Singing Partnership Lead’ to work as part of the cathedral music team for 23 hours each week during term time. He is working with the probationers, pre-probationers and leading the junior choir in the cathedral (three sessions each week) and going into four primary schools each week for an hour or so working with Year 3 and Year 4 children, the age at which the cathedral prefer singers to join us as choristers. Jack is working to build their confidence as singers, their enjoyment of making music and potentially to identify any children who might wish to develop their singing further in the cathedral.
One boy, identified at one of the schools, has already joined as a probationer – so the positive results of this work are already having an impact! The cathedral also held a ‘Come and Sing Joseph’ day in October, which again led to several children coming to audition for a place in the cathedral choir.
The day was paid for using the CSA funding. The cathedral is confident that their recruitment work, using Jack’s energy and expertise, will produce many more choristers in the future. The work could not have taken place without the CSA support for setting up and implementing this new strategy.
