Choral firsts for St Eds Cathedral

St Eds Cathedral welcomed back its first Choral Evensong on Friday, launched a new Cathedral Girls’ Choir and welcomed four new faces into its music department.

Choral Evensong was live-streamed via the cathedral’s Facebook page – signalling a number of firsts for the cathedral after six months in lockdown.

Choral firsts for St Edmundsbury Cathedral

Twelve girl choristers started their training last week to form a new Cathedral Girls’ Choir while rehearsals are underway with the existing boy choristers who are preparing to return in the next few weeks.

And the music department welcomed four new faces; Emily Mustoe and Elli-Mae McGlone who will be sharing and developing their music skills over the coming year as choral and organ scholar respectively. Emily Mustoe was head chorister at Worcester Cathedral, she is the cathedral’s first choral scholar and will be sharing her time between the cathedral and County Upper School.

Elli-Mae McGlone is the cathedral’s first female organ scholar. Starting her musical career as a pianist, she took up the organ in 2013 and has been Senior Organ Scholar at Doncaster Minster. Elli-Mae also sings and plays the clarinet and will support music tuition at King Edward VI School.

William Saunders, former Head of Music at the Royal Hospital School. Holbrook, joins as a freelance music advisor on a temporary basis and Naomi Sturges, who studied music at University of York, is the new Music and Liturgy Administrator.

Richard Cook, Acting Director of Music said:

“These are exciting times for the Cathedral as several new people have joined the Music department and we’re delighted to welcome our various choirs back after such a long break.

“We look forward to working with the local schools, collaborating with Britten Piers Arts and their Friday Afternoon series, and bringing music back not only to the Cathedral, but also the local community, ‘ he added.

The Cathedral is currently recruiting choristers who receive free singing, piano and musicianship lessons as well as experience singing in the surroundings of the Cathedral – for further information, please contact Richard Cook on adom@stedscathedral.org, or see visit https://stedscathedral.org/music/choirs.

We have a whole section on our website dedicated to Choral Evensong. Visit and find out more here.