A Week in the Life

A Week in the Life Lancing Choristers

Lancing College Choir is made of over 60 pupils and staff, all with something in common: the love of singing.

Many of our Choristers have been part of a choir at their previous schools, and a significant number have joined from cathedral schools such as St Paul’s, Salisbury, Westminster, Ely and Exeter. New pupils can also join the Choir when they arrive in the Sixth Form. When joining, there is a brief audition with some aural tests and sight reading, but these skills can be also worked on and developed once in the Choir.

Being a full-time Chorister involves two main rehearsals per week of 30 minutes each for the whole Choir, who sing at the school Eucharist every Wednesday morning. The Choir is also regularly invited to sing evensong at other venues such as Chichester Cathedral and St George’s, Windsor. Additionally, there is an opportunity to join the Choral Scholars – a chamber choir drawn from members of the full Choir.

Our Choristers enjoy an array of opportunities. Not only they are able to rehearse and sing in the largest school chapel in the world, but many other avenues are available to all pupils who enjoy singing: for example, Student Voices is open to anyone, and joins with the adult College Singers once per year to sing in a large-scale choral concert; the terrific A Cappella Club sings arrangements of pop songs; singers who enjoy musical theatre can audition for the school musical; and many singers join a band in the Rock Music Workshops.

After Lancing, many of our Choristers move on to achieve a Choral Scholarship at prestigious universities such as Oxford or Cambridge, and many others will continue to sing in the OL Choir at special events.

‘I arrived at Lancing College in 2019 from King’s Ely, Cambridgeshire, after five years as a chorister at Ely Cathedral. I always felt as if the timetable there was very restrictive and didn’t allow for many co-curricular activities, especially in music and drama. On the contrary, here at Lancing the rehearsal schedule gives me time to participate in many music ensembles such as Sinfonia, Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band, the Choir and Choral Scholars; this is what I actually love most about the College.

Since starting in the Fifth Form my schedule is very busy due to the increased workload that comes with preparing my GCSE exams. Yet I still have time to take part in College plays, which I enjoy very much.

Since the beginning of term, we have had evensong almost every other Friday, which has been a very nice change after having been unable to sing at these events for so long during the pandemic.’

Theo Almond Fifth Form Music Scholar