Choral Music has flourished at Blundell’s over the past few years, with the pupils continually raising the bar to new heights. Last year, the choir enjoyed trips to Exeter Cathedral and Bath Abbey, recorded a Christmas album (due to be released later this year), and performed large-scale works such as Vivaldi’s Gloria. However, the culmination and undoubted highlight of the year came in the summer after a brilliant tour to Italy, when we returned to England to perform Choral Evensong at Westminster Abbey, the first visiting choir of the summer to do so.
After an afternoon of busy rehearsals, the building surrounding the choir stalls filled up with a congregation of over a thousand. It was an incredible experience for our pupils to sing in one of the world’s most famous churches, and they did so with absolute conviction, concentration, and poise. It was a superb service, delivered with real quality and confidence throughout. The greatest endorsement came at the end of the service, when, after we had returned to the cloisters, the Dean of Westminster spoke to the pupils and invited Blundell’s choir back to the Abbey.
It was a proud day to be a Blundellian, and an occasion the pupils will remember for many years to come.