A BIG reunion at Chester Cathedral made for a wonderful weekend of choir singing.

Last month, the congregation during the sung services of Saturday Evensong, Sunday Eucharist and Sunday Evensong were treated to a ‘first’.

The visiting choir was composed of former members of the Cathedral Choir. While the Cathedral Choristers’ Association has sung Evensong at their annual reunion for many decades, this weekend was a novel outreach programme aimed at former choristers who had left the choir over the past few decades.

As the Girls’ Choir was only established in 1996, this was the first time that many of the ‘girls’ had the chance to sing with ‘boys’ with whom they had sung when they were trebles but now occupied the back rows of the choir stalls.

Conductor Tom Coxhead and organist Nick Miller did an amazing job of whipping the singers into shape in a very short space of time.

Tom’s comment in the rehearsal before the Saturday Evensong of "you’ve clearly all been very well-trained" certainly rang true! The many friends and family in the congregation during the services in the Cathedral, and those who were delighted to be able to watch live online having since moved further afield, were positively surprised by the rich and professional sound the choir produced.

With many thanks to Canon Rosie for organising the reception, the choir and their guests enjoyed a wonderful time reminiscing about their time in the choir after Saturday Evensong. It became apparent that being a chorister transcends age gaps. Even those who were not in the choir together as children were able to delight at the similarities in their experiences.

Some participants had never had the chance to visit, or sing in, the ‘new’ Song School. They were delighted to see the fruits of many years of fundraising exploits during their youth. All were certainly pleased to see evidence of the Cathedral Choir still going strong today.

The weekend was such a success that there were many calls for the reunion to become a regular event. The organisational team of Lizzie and Tom Coxhead, Emily Guerin and Rhiannon Pugh certainly already have their planning caps on! They, on behalf of all this year’s participants, would like to thank the Cathedral clergy, music department and congregation for hosting such a wonderful weekend.