Diocese of Adelaide South Australia
Music » Cathedral Choirs
Cathedral Choirs
The Cathedral Choir
St Peter’s Cathedral Choir has been singing services in the Cathedral for over 130 years. It is the only choir of children and adults of its type in Adelaide. The Cathedral trebles have been invited to perform with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the State Opera Company. The altos, tenors and basses are also amongst Adelaide’s best choral singers, with many performing regularly with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Chamber Singers.
Currently, the Choir sings at three services each week, appears regularly in concert performances and makes CD recordings. The Choir’s repertoire includes music by composers such as Palestrina, Byrd, Tallis, Purcell, Handel, Bach, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Mozart, Haydn and Vaughan Williams, as well as contemporary composers . The Choir has also performed many larger works with orchestra, such as the Bach St John Passion and Fauré Requiem. The Choir has performed in concert with ensembles such as the Australian String Quartet, Adelaide Art Orchestra, the Tallis Scholars and the Elder Conservatorium Chorale and Chamber Orchestra. In recent years, the Choir has toured within Australia to Melbourne, the Clare Valley and Kangaroo Island. In 2006-07, the Choir embarked on its first international tour, to England, singing in cathedrals at Oxford, St Albans, Lincoln, Hereford, York, Ripon and Wakefield, and St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
If you would like to join the Cathedral Choir, see our Joining the Choir page.
The other choirs
Certaine Notes is the Cathedral's chamber choir singing on many of the Feast Days throughout the year, and also taking part in many of the Cathedral's musical events. With one or two voices per part, they specialise in renaissance music which they perform with great authority.
The Gregorian Choir comprises the Gentlemen of the Cathedral Choir. They sing services regularly throughout the year, and their repertoire includes Gregorian chant, Armenian music and renaissance polyphony.
Cantores in Excelsis, made up of the Trebles and Altos of the Cathedral Choir, enables the choir's repertoire to embrace the wealth of music written for upper voices.