CSA welcomes Frideswide Voices as new members!

CSA is delighted to welcome Frideswide Voices as an associate member of the Association! The girls’ choir was recently adopted by Christ Church as part of the choral foundation of the College and Cathedral.

Frideswide Voices was established in 2014 as the first college and cathedral choir in Oxford for girls aged 7-14. For the past three years the choir has sung termly residencies at Christ Church, New College and Magdalen.

Since September the girls, who are drawn from more than 25 different schools across the city and county, have rehearsed twice a week at Christ Church and sing Evensong once a week.

Helen Smee at the helm!

The choir has a new director too. Helen Smee, a freelance conductor who studied music at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where she was the Organ Scholar, and a choral conducting at the Royal Academy of Music.

She says: “I am thrilled to be appointed at such an exciting moment in the choir’s development. The work done by Will Dawes and all at Frideswide Voices up until now has built an excellent choir.

“It has already been a big year for Frideswide Voices, having been welcomed into the Foundation at Christ Church in September. We are delighted that this exciting new chapter has brought us into membership of the CSA, and we look forward to being a part of this unique and important organisation, as well as the wider family of cathedral and collegiate choristers in the UK”.

A senior chorister, one of the founder-members of the choir in 2014, adds: “We are so honoured to have Frideswide Voices and all our hard work acknowledged by the Choir Schools’ Association. It’s very exciting to now be part of a wider organisation full of others that share our passion for music and we’re hugely looking forwards to beginning a new chapter in our journey with them!”.

Potential girl choristers are auditioned in early May of school year 2. Hopefully Christ Church will be holding taster sessions later in the year. In the meantime you can find out more about joining the girls’ choir by contacting frideswide.voices@chch.ox.ac.uk