Main picture: The Girl’s Choir at Westminster Abbey

Below: The Boy’s Choir

Ripon Cathedral Choir’s UK summer tour saw the choir singing at Westminster Abbey over a four-day period. Some 60 boy and girl choristers and choral scholars together with ten lay clerks (adult singers), sang four evensongs and Sunday’s Sung Eucharist while the abbey’s own choir takes its summer break. The choir was conducted by the cathedral’s Director of Music Dr Ronny Krippner.

The Dean of Ripon, The Very Rev John Dobson said: “It was thrilling for parents, staff and the dean alike to experience the glorious singing of Ripon Cathedral Choir in Westminster Abbey. The choir of course is used to singing in a magnificent historic building, so Westminster Abbey was not so strange, but it is a larger building which has sat at the centre of this nation’s history for a thousand years and that fact together with the concentration of monuments of monarchs and remarkable people, clearly made an impression on the choir.

Not only were they singing Purcell’s music, but they could also see his monument! We were all proud that they rose to the occasion with such flair. I’m extremely grateful to Dr Krippner and all the music staff for organising such a brilliant residency.”

For a number of the children, this was their first visit to London. Between rehearsals and services they enjoyed trips to the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Warner Bros Studio Harry Potter Tour.

Ahead of the Westminster trip the choir held a fundraising Proms style concert showcasing the British choral tradition with a dash of British wit – with reimagined arrangements of the theme tunes from The Vicar of Dibley and Mr. Bean! The lay clerks transported the audience back to the 1930s with their close harmony renditions of Puttin’ on the Ritz, Mr Sandman and Tea for Two.

The choir was decimated by the pandemic – which made it impossible to recruit – but has gone from strength to strength under Dr Krippner, releasing a CD last Christmas and recording another for release this autumn.

Last summer the choir toured Bavaria singing at locations including Munich Cathedral and Nuremberg Frauenkirche and receiving standing ovations and acclaim by German media.