The decision to abolish the mixed choir at St John’s College in Cambridge to make room for a “wider range” of music has been described as “fundamentally regressive” by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Sir Simon Rattle and the Dame. He was accused of being a target. Sarah Connolly and Aled Jones.
The decision to withdraw funding from St John’s Voice, which has male and female singers and has been in operation since 2013, has “curtailed” choral music at the university and left its members “devastated”. According to the open letter.
The letter said a 2022 decision to allow female singers to join St. John’s College’s independent choir was “used as a weapon” to justify disbanding St. John’s Voice. Members of St. John’s Voice have launched a petition seeking redress.
There are 14 female singers in St. John’s Voice, but they will be left with nowhere to go when the choir closes in June 2024.
The letter to the university council said: ‘We are devastated by this decision. I think it’s a movement.”
The university said it made the decision following a review in 2023 to “adopt a broader approach to providing music co-curricular opportunities for students, including different genres”.
Some reports have portrayed this uproar as a battle between the two sides. Tradition and more progressive ideals Diversity and inclusion.
St. John’s University said in a statement that “today’s musical tastes and experiences are different than previous generations,” and that the new direction “reflects student feedback on their needs and aspirations.”
However, St John’s Voice criticized the decision-making process as irrational. “The British choral tradition of equal opportunity is one that St John’s Voice stands for and we do not intend to undermine it,” his letter said.
“It is infuriating that a remarkable advance in the choral world (admission of female singers to SJCC) has been used as a weapon to attack the very existence of another ensemble, perhaps in the name of expanding opportunities.”
Other backers of the letter, posted on Wednesday night, calling for the defunding decision to be reversed include broadcaster Alexander Armstrong and Gareth Malone, presenter of BBC reality show The Choir. Also included.
Choir leader Graham Walker will lose his job when the choir disbands at the end of the Easter period. “The termination of the SJV will result in the loss of more than 30 choir members, a redundancy in leadership, and a gap in the musical life of the college and university as a whole,” his letter said.
The choral tradition at St. John’s dates back 400 years, but women were only allowed to participate in 2013. Aquila is an all-female a cappella group founded in 2017.secular vocal ensemble” and is not part of the choral tradition.
The issue of all-male choirs remains at odds, with traditions clashing with groups that have signed up to the Equal Opportunity Charter.
Anne Atkins, whose father was the headmaster of King’s College, Cambridge, recently announced that the school’s choir remains all-male, continuing a tradition dating back to Henry VI, who decreed that there would be 16 boys. However, he wrote that he was not allowed to sing in the choir. Choir.
Although other choirs are gaining acceptance in recent years, “there are still relatively few opportunities for girls in our main choirs.” Atkins wrote.
