Going for a song: choir scholarships

Reaping the rewards
At all choir schools, choristers receive an unparalleled musical education - by the time they are eleven, they are real professionals. They often sing in concerts, radio and television broadcasts and recordings and - even more glamorous - go on tour to exotic locations (the Temple, for instance, most recently went to Brazil).

The financial rewards are considerable, too. Almost all the choir schools offer choristers at least a 50 per cent reduction in fees, and 60 to 80 per cent is not unusual. Most of the schools are preps and continue the scholarships during a boy's entire school life, even if his voice breaks prematurely. Subsequently, most choristers get music or academic scholarships in their senior schools as they are generally trained in at least two instruments. In fact, of 197 choristers who left their choirs last year, only eleven went on to pay full fees in their next schools. It needn't even stop there - many of the older universities offer choral scholarships to ex-choristers, regardless of their chosen subject.

How do you get in?
What you need is a strong, clear voice and a good ear for picking up and remembering a tune - and, of course, a real enthusiasm for music. Choirmasters tend to look for boys with obvious enthusiasm and energy - not just a sweet voice - as services and rehearsals can amount to a sizeable workload for an eight-year-old, who has to fit his singing around school, homework and sports practice.

Most choir schools have traditionally used an annual voice trial as the selection process. In essence a competition, the boys sing a prepared piece or two, play an instrument if they have learned one and sing back tunes, chords and scales or clap out rhythms. They usually do an academic test, too, because it is unlikely that someone struggling with their schoolwork would be able to cope with the choir as well. Now some schools make the voice trial as informal as possible and are happy to listen to boys by appointment throughout the year.

The increasing informality is all part of a trend that aims to draw boys into the slightly foreign cassock and cloister culture. Once there, though, the boys usually take to it with enthusiasm and are just the same as little boys everywhere, their minds mostly on football and PlayStations, just happening when they open their mouths to let out a divine sound.

Information
Temple Choir, London
020 7353 0172

Hereford Cathedral School, Hereford
01432-363511

Choir School Association (for a complete list of choir schools)
01904 624900