The Choir

St Mary’s Singers exists primarily to sing the services at Truro Cathedral when the Cathedral Choir is on holiday. In addition, the thirty-five-strong choir gives concerts throughout the year, performing with St Mary’s Orchestra in spring and summer. Bach’s St John Passion is performed liturgically on Palm Sunday each year and recent concerts have featured Italian baroque, German baroque, German romantic and British twentieth-century music, from Bach’s Mass in B Minor to James MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados. It has recently broadcast live on BBC Radio 4's Sunday Morning Worship programme.

Founded in 1985 by David Cheetham, St Mary's Singers has been conducted by Christopher Gray since 2001. It has had several pieces written specially for it, two of which were commissioned with financial assistance from Arts Council England. One of these works can be heard on the choir's recent CD All this time this song is best, available from the Cathedral Shop.

The choir is enterprising in its efforts to introduce young people to classical music and the Anglican choral tradition. There are nine free places available to talented students and an annual concert is performed in November with over 100 pupils from local schools and colleges. Entry to all performances is free to under-18s.

St Mary’s Singers can provide singers to perform at weddings and other private functions. For more information about repertoire, fees and availability, please contact the Choir’s Secretary.

For information on the choir's new Friends and Patrons scheme, including benefits such as priority booking for concerts, please contact the Choir’s Secretary.

Christopher Gray is Assistant Director of Music at Truro Cathedral where he accompanies the Cathedral Choir in most of its six sung services each week. Since his appointment in September 2000, he has appeared with the Choir on numerous broadcasts for BBC radio and television as well as on six CD recordings on the Regent, Lammas and Priory labels. His first solo recording of Bach from Truro Cathedral has recently been released on the Pasticcio label.

After his early musical education in his hometown of Bangor, Northern Ireland, Christopher became Assistant Organist at St George’s Parish Church, Belfast, whilst in the sixth form. In 1996 he moved to England to take up the organ scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read music.

A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Christopher studied the organ with David Sanger and Nicolas Kynaston at Cambridge. He was subsequently taught by Margaret Phillips at the Royal College of Music, where he was a post-graduate student and a prize winner. During this time he also held the organ scholarship at Guildford Cathedral, working with Stephen Farr and Geoffrey Morgan.

In addition to his duties at Truro Cathedral, Christopher conducts Cornwall Junior Choir as well as Richard Lander School’s Wilbye Choir and Truro School’s Senior Choir. He has been the conductor of St Mary’s Singers and Orchestra since September 2001.

Choir Secretary: Eileen Goddard

St Mary’s Singers
Truro Cathedral Office
14 St Mary's St
Truro
TR1 2AF

Tel: 01872 276782
Fax: 01872 277788

Our Registered Charity Number is 900411.