King’s women’s choir refuses to address academics’ frustrations

Students in King’s College’s mixed choir have criticized the College for the lack of opportunities for female singers.

Female choral scholars complained about the College’s lack of investment in the King’s Voices, resulting in a significant decline in quality. This situation caused some women to leave the choir.

King’s College Choir (KCC) is the last main college choir at Cambridge without women. King’s Voices (KV) was founded in 1997 to give women “the opportunity to contribute vocally to the musical life of the College”.

But women’s choir academics have complained that the College has not given due consideration to its only mixed choir, with one source describing it as a “pity prize for women”.

One choir expert said: university He said the equipment was “collapsing” and “the acoustics of the room allocated for KV rehearsals were very bad”.

Another source claimed that “King led the women into the lie that they could be female choral scholars.”

In February of this year, a thirty-minute meeting was scheduled for choir members to share their concerns with the Dean, Stephen Cherry, and Choir Director Daniel Hyde.

Daniel Hyde has been director of King’s College Choir since 2018. Upon his appointment, world-famous soprano singer Lesley Garrett directly in the name Labeling the KCC a “throwback to a bygone era”, he called for it to set an example in allowing women into the choir.

At the February meeting, some students expressed disappointment with King’s treatment of KV. According to participants’ meeting notes, one male student stated that he had “spoken to many women at KV over the years who said they felt systematically underappreciated and oppressed about music at King’s.”

Concerns were also raised about the financial compensation given to members of the college’s all-male choir. KCC singers were paid £70 per concert (totaling around £600-800 per term), while King’s Voices students performed all concerts free of charge. This included concerts for which KCC and male choirs were paid.

Additionally, female choral scholars, called “exhibitors”, do not receive free long-term accommodation at King’s and are not charged £300 per recording studio session, unlike male choristers.

This comes later university clarified St John’s Chapel Choir received 17 times more funding than the recently dissolved mixed-gender choir St John’s Voices.

The college has yet to make any significant changes to KV or issue an apology following the meeting.

A former female choir scholar said: university She said the constant mistreatment of women in the choir led to the deterioration of her mental health and influenced her decision to leave: “When I raised the issues I was not treated with kindness or courtesy. “I was treated like a nuisance.”

This comes after St John’s College undermined in a move described as “crazy” by members of the mixed choir. Despite campaigning by St John’s Voices, their petition has garnered more than 15,000 signatures. rejected to recommission the choir.

The petition has been signed by a number of prominent figures, including former Archbishop of Canterbury and former Magdalene College master Rowan Williams. The petition said St John’s decision to stop funding the mixed-gender choir was “fundamentally reactionary”.

The SJV’s successor, the University of Cambridge Schola Cantorum (CUSC), became operational earlier this term and held its first recital earlier this year.

A spokesman for King’s College said: “Recognizing the changing landscape of the university choral world, the University Council established a Working Group on University Choirs last year, which is expected to report back this academic year.”