World-famous Oxford University choir makes historic decision

Founded in 1480, the choir has become one of the most highly regarded ensembles in the UK and is best known for singing to welcome the dawn from the Great Tower of Magdalen College each year on May Morning.

The choir has appeared at the BBC Proms and toured the USA, France, Sweden, Holland, Portugal, and Spain in recent years.

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The choir’s 16 young choristers are from Magdalen College School, originally founded as the Song School for the college, which last month announced its plans to become co-educational from 2027.

The college has now decided to offer choristerships on an equal basis to both girls and boys aged between eight and 13.

Magdalen College Choir (Image: Hugh Warwick)

To assist in the integration of girls into the choir, the college is to expand the number of chorister places to 18.

The college will continue to pay two thirds of the school fees of all choristers and will, in addition, establish a new top-up bursary fund to pay up to 100 per cent of fees for choristers whose families need additional financial support.

“The college is immensely proud of its musical tradition, and we are delighted to reaffirm and expand our commitment to the Choral Foundation as we approach the 550th anniversary of the statutes establishing the Choir,” said president of the college, Dinah Rose.

“From 2027, Magdalen College Choir will be open to all talented young singers, regardless of their sex or the financial means of their family.”

Mark Williams, musical director and organist, said: “Standing in the college’s beautiful 15th-century chapel on a daily basis, it’s impossible not to feel the weight of history.

“Ours is a living tradition, and this represents a tremendously exciting development as we strive to maintain and nourish that tradition.”

Mr Williams said girls will join the choir in Year 4 in September 2027, leading to a fully mixed cohort by 2031.

He added: “The college has been particularly impressed by the highly successful introduction of girl choristers at similar institutions, including St John’s College, Cambridge, St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and the Temple Church, London, and I have been very grateful to colleagues across the choral world, former choir members and organists, and alumni of the college for their advice and support during our deliberations.

“Our first female organ scholar, Anna Lapwood, came to Magdalen in 2013 and has gone on to a highly successful career.

“The introduction of women altos as academical clerks a few years ago brought a new and valuable element to both our sound and our community, and I am confident that girl choristers will enhance and enrich our choir family in many ways.”