With the Choir at its lowest ebb, it is time to rebuild

Westminster Cathedral Choir had for decades been a world-class choir, a highly disciplined unit which maintained the very highest standards.  

It could hardly be said that today, that reputation and those standards are fully intact.  

The choir has suffered more than most during the Covid-19 pandemic, severely wounded as it already was by a disastrous series of changes forced through by the school and cathedral authorities in March 2019 (some of which have since been reversed, on paper, following the scathing findings of the Strategic Review). 

The choir's woes are down to a combination of factors, including:

• the choir's distinguished Master of Music ostensibly resigned in (was no longer present from) October 2019 following the ill-conceived changes in March 2019, purportedly under pressure, and the choir has been leaderless since; 
• a number of experienced choristers were also forced to leave under protest following the ill-conceived and rushed changes, with more having left prematurely since for reasons as yet unknown (the number of choristers is at around 15 rather than the 25 to 30 that used to be present prior to 2019 - i.e. lower than it has been in living memory); 
• there was little to no music department-led practice for the choristers during lockdown, when other comparable choirs at least managed some on-line group singing led by their respective directors of music; 
• when choral singing has been allowed to return as part of communal worship, the choir has sung unduly limited repertoire, and the choristers' customary precision and confidence is abandoning them with increasing regularity (through no fault of their own).  

The cathedral is now advertising for a new Master of Music. 

Despite the appalling mess the choir is now in, the appointment of the right person as Master of Music will go a long way to beginning the rebuilding process, which will take a considerable amount of time (and not just because of the pandemic). There is reason to believe that the process set up to appoint a new Master of Music is robust, but it will be closely monitored.  

There is also a renewed effort to promote the cathedral and its works, through the appointment of a full-time communications officer, with duties including the co-ordination of on-line streaming of masses from Westminster Cathedral (there is a pressing need to upgrade this as the current arrangements are amateur in the extreme especially as compared with other comparable cathedral and college choirs). Again, if done properly, this could have residual benefits for the choir.  

Vaccinations offer hope on the pandemic front, though not immediate.  

There is therefore reason for cautious optimism. But each step taken will be scrutinised very closely by those who care about the choir and wish to see it prosper into the future, and in particular, to see it reclaim its position as a world-class musical and liturgical ensemble.  

Cardinal Nichols has been Archbishop of Westminster since 2009. Under his leadership, the choir largely flourished, as did the liturgies in general at Westminster Cathedral. It makes the outrageous changes announced abruptly in early 2019 - and having been backed so steadfastly by the cardinal - so baffling. Why would he choose to inflict such damaging changes on his cathedral choir at that point, and in such a reckless and brazen manner, ignoring almost all principles of good governance and pastoral sensitivity, not to mention disregarding the overwhelming majority of expert musical opinion? 

The Choir in better times: Midnight Mass 2009 with Archbishop Nichols

With the Strategic Review having (on paper) corrected many of the egregious flaws in the approach taken by the cardinal and school to the changes to the choir in 2019, Cardinal Nichols now has a chance to lay the foundations for rebuilding his choir so that it once again sits at the apex of liturgical choirs throughout the UK and beyond, offering God and His people the very best in musical worship. Let us hope that is what the cardinal intends to do. If it is, he will find a large number of people willing to help him achieve this, and he might just salvage some sort of positive legacy from his time leading the Catholic Church in England and Wales.