Sixteen schoolgirls are to make history by ending a tradition of male-only choral singing at Canterbury Cathedral stretching back more than a thousand years.
The girls took part in their first full rehearsal this week and will make their debut, dressed in purple cassocks and white surplices, at evensong on 25 January. "It is all a completely new experience," said Ellen Spurling, 15, from Pett Bottom, near Canterbury, one of the choir. "I have not done anything like it. We have had choral arrangements at school but nothing like this."
The rehearsal was memorable, she said, but "to be able to sing like you have seen boys do, in the choir stalls, will be amazing".
The seat of the archbishop of Canterbury and mother church of the Anglican Communion worldwide is taking steps towards gender equality more than 20 years after Salisbury Cathedral set up a girls' choir.
Boys aged eight to 13 will hold pride of place, despite being younger than the "voluntary" girls choir, whose members start at 12 and can stay until they are 18. The girls will initially only be singing at services when boy choristers, boarders at St Edmund's school, take their twice-termly breaks. There are no women in the cathedral's adult choir.
Ellen is among nine successful applicants from Simon Langton girls' grammar school in Canterbury, with the others from seven different schools. "In the formation we stand in, every other girl is a Simon Langton girl."
She comes from what she describes as "a musically incompetent family" but her performance as Nancy in Oliver Twist led to encouragement from teachers and others and soon she was taking private singing lessons. At her secondary school, she has pursued choral, classical, popular and even barbershop music. Her aim is to go into musical theatre.The girls' choir director, David Newsholme, said the standard and enthusiasm among the 40 girls, aged 12 to 16, who auditioned in November had been "incredibly high", adding: "This is a very exciting time for the cathedral and for these very talented young ladies."
A cathedral spokesman said: "The boys are practising every day and singing every day. The girls are starting off from scratch. We don't want anyone making comparisons between the two or girls feeling they have not got up to the same standard. They are practising once a week for one-and-a-half hours. It is not a long time."
Lynsey Spurling, Ellen's mother, said: "She has always loved singing, although there's no musicality in the family. She is very modest. She can do all sorts of things with her voice and I think she has realised quite early that this is something quite special. She has dabbled with the piano, she has dabbled with the guitar but it is her voice that is her forte."
The example set at Salisbury has been followed so enthusiastically by other cathedrals in England that there are now 765 girls in their choirs against 1,008 boys. The sexes usually sing seperately although at Salisbury they evenly share the cathedral workload and sing together on Christmas and Easter days and at festival events. Richard Seal, who was organist and master of choristers in Salisbury when girls between 8 and 13 were admitted in 1991, said: "Provided the potential is there, you are looking for the same qualities (in boys and girls). The sound they make is different – always will be. That's the pleasure of it... You are looking for youngsters interested in singing, with something of a voice, not a trained voice, but who is musically active and has a bit of glint in their eye," said Seal."
As to the boys' reaction at the time, he said: "One had to woo them a bit. They were very proud about what they did – they have this huge history, centuries behind them. They didn't want that to go."
Seal added: "Girls have found their rightful place now. There is no stopping them. Girls from Salisbury have gone to Oxford and Cambridge and carried on their singing there. Some are in professional choirs. It is wonderful."
