Choirs
St James’s has a longstanding choral tradition and supports choirs of boys, girls and adults. It is to a great extent because of the church’s music as well as its size that it is often chosen as the venue for large-scale events such as Ordination services.
The traditional Men’s and Boys’ Choir served the church well for many years. In 1996 a new Girls’ Choir was formed, and initially the girls sang just at family services, but as they have become more experienced it has become the norm for them to join with the boys in providing music for the church’s main-stream services.
The alto, tenor and bass parts are still sung mainly by men, but recently a group of adult sopranos has been welcomed, to support the children’s sound when needed, at a time when young choristers are not quite as numerous as in years past. This system is working well, particularly at major festivals, when all come together.
Two choral services are normally sung each Sunday: a morning Eucharist and Choral Evensong. The main variation to this is on the second Sunday of each month, when the morning service is a Family Service with piano and instrumental group and the evening service is Choral Eucharist.