The Cathedral Choirs
Two excerpts from the 2011 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
A stable lamp is lighted (David Hurd)
Bogoroditsye Dyevo (Sergei Rachmoninoff)
I will sing with the spirit and with the understanding also.
motto of the Royal School of Church Music
The Cathedral has a long tradition of excellence in music, dating to 1831 when the parish purchased its first organ—only the second such instrument in Detroit. The Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys was founded in 1884, and thus it enjoys one of the longest unbroken traditions of any such choir in the United States. The Girls and Womens’ Choirs were formed in 1917. In 2001, the Schola Cantorum, a small, auditioned chamber choir was added and these three ensembles present a great breadth of sacred choral music in liturgies and in concert.
Affiliated with the Royal School of Church Music in America, the choirs sing the principal Sunday service at 10:30 a.m.weekly, as well as various occasional events such as Choral Evensong (an afternoon service of music and prayers), the Advent Procession (a service of music and words in preparation for Christmas), and the beloved service of Nine Lessons and Carols, which is traditionally sung during the week before Christmas.
The choirs have sung with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, have appeared in concert with orchestra in the Cathedral. They sing annually on the Music at the Cathedral concert series, appearing with our own renowned music staff as well as artists from around the country.
The choirs make one domestic tour annually, and in recent years have been heard in Rochester, New York; Toronto; Cleveland; Chicago; Alexandria, Virginia; and in the Washington National Cathedral.
Adults who wish to learn more about becoming involved with the Cathedral Choirs are asked to contact Mr. Jeremy David Tarrant, Organist and Choirmaster
Music Office: (313) 833-7547
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
A unique musical opportunity for children
Boy and Girl choristers in the Cathedral receive their musical training through the Cathedral Choir School of Metropolitan Detroit, an extra0curricular music opportunity that provides children of Metropolitan Detroit a solid, basic music education, free of charge.
Generations of boys and girls from all over the Detroit metropolitan area have had their musical formation in the Cathedral Choirs. The Cathedral and Choir School adhere to the principle that children are capable of learning to sing the finest in choral music from all composers of all periods and in a variety of languages. Choristers in the Cathedral Choirs are not merely taught how to sing. Their rehearsal time is divided between rehearsing the music to be sung and learning music theory skills, ear training, vocal technique, music reading, and so on. Therefore, at the end of a child’s time in the choir, he or she has gained a solid basic music education, free of charge. Children emerge from this experience with a deep love of fine arts, enhanced self-confidence, and an ability to work collaboratively.
Visit the website for The Cathedral Choir School of Metropolitan Detroit
Choir News
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Music and Madness: Cathedral Choir Tour to Ohio and Kentucky, 2011
by Richard Fry
The Cathedral Choir made its seventh annual domestic tour over the weekend of June 25 and June 26, visiting Cincinnati, Ohio and Newport, Kentucky. The focal point of the tour was the choir's participation in the morning Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati on June 26.
The choristers, adult singers, and chaperones gathered at the Cathedral at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. After a short meeting with Canon Tarrant, during which many people were still half asleep, we all boarded the coach. Despite bearing the name 'Good Samaritan Comfort,' the coach was hardly the last word in luxury, with narrow seats and restricted legroom. We traveled south on I-75 to Cincinnati, with Canon Tarrant to provide guidance on the itinerary and Jane Thomas, Chair of the Choir School Board, to provide sustenance in the form of cookies and other snacks. Associate Organist Richard Newman was also present, on his first tour with the choir.
We arrived at the Ramada Hotel in Cincinnati, our base for the weekend, just after 12:30 p.m. On checking in, we learned that the outdoor swimming pool was drained of water and closed to guests. The hotel was rundown, with threadbare carpets, walls that badly needed painting, and very slow elevators. The rooms were not much better; Justin and I, who were sharing a room, needed several attempts to lock our door. (Canon Tarrant adds his thanks to the Choir and to the Choir Parents for their most gracious handling of the less-than-great accommodation.)
Most of the group assembled in the hotel lobby at 1:30 p.m. and walked the short distance to Union Terminal, an old railway building that now houses several museums. While the trebles and chaperons made straight for the natural history museum or children's museum, Justin, Ben, and I (all singers in the bass section) started with the Cincinnati history museum. As a labor historian, I particularly enjoyed the exhibits about the industrial revolution in Cincinnati. The best part of the museum, though, was the enormous model of Cincinnati, with dozens of operating trains and streetcars.
By the time we left the history museum, we only had time to walk quickly around the natural history museum before reconvening with the other group members in the Union Terminal forecourt. The group then proceeded to the IMAX theater for a film about tornadoes. The film was engaging, particularly the footage shot in the middle of a tornado, but I found it hard to focus on the enormous screen. At one point, I even found myself falling asleep. I didn't feel so bad about this when I found out that several other people had the same problem.
Later, Justin, Ben, and I walked to downtown Cincinnati for dinner. We were joined by two of the chaperones, Aria and Mary, and their three charges, Jacob, Ruth, and Corrine. We all decided to go to a restaurant called Arnold's, which we found listed in the Cincinnati visitor guide. Finding the restaurant, however, proved to be somewhat problematic. No one in the group could decipher the map in the visitor guide - or rather, everyone in the group was very bad at reading maps - with the result that we had to ask a random passerby how to get there.
When we finally located the restaurant, we sat in the outside courtyard. Everyone ordered something different from the eclectic menu. The convivial atmosphere in the courtyard (and good company, I might add) compensated for the mediocre food. When we left the restaurant, we amused ourselves by taking turns to sit in a motorized bathtub on wheels that was parked outside!
That night, there was an intense thunderstorm. It was still dissipating when the group set off for Christ Church Cathedral at 8:15 a.m. the next morning. At the cathedral, the choir had a short rehearsal, before singing at the 10:00 a.m. service. We sang C. V. Stanford's Beati Quorum Via and Basil Harwood's Magnificat in A Flat. Following the service, cathedral volunteers provided lunch for the group. Everyone agreed it was the best lunch they had ever had on a choir tour. The chicken salad and pineapple muffins were particularly good, and even the coffee tasted better than usual. Canon Tarrant and Mr. Newman spent time meeting the congregants of Christ Church, and received many compliments about the choir's visit.
By early afternoon, it was warm and sunny. We set off at 1:30 p.m. for the Newport Aquarium, across the Ohio River in Kentucky. As the bus was departing the cathedral, two choristers announced that they had forgotten to bring some luggage from their room earlier that morning. Canon Tarrant took pity, and abandoned his earlier (very stern) warning that the bus would not return to the hotel under any circumstances. We made, in his words, 'a special diversion' to the hotel on the way to the aquarium.
Newport Aquarium was busy, to the point that it was difficult to see many of the exhibits. The show where divers went swimming with sharks was worth the price of admission, though. Ben and I still had an hour to spare after leaving the aquarium, so we watched a nearby street magician. It turns out that Ben has experience of doing magic, so he was able to tell me the secrets behind the tricks. Half the time, I was not actually paying attention to the magician. I was too busy trying to finish my large serving of cookie-dough ice cream before it turned into milkshake in the hot sun.
By five o'clock, it was time for everyone to get back on the coach for the return journey to Detroit. We stopped back at Christ Church Cathedral for some people who had elected not to join us at the aquarium, before the drive north to the Motor City. Our arrival in the parking lot of St. Paul's Cathedral later that evening signaled the end of another successful trip and another choir year.
Chorister Summer course in Pennsylvania
Each summer the Royal School of Church Music in America hosts special summer training courses. These intensive, week-long sessions give choristers (youth and adult) the opportunity to work with world-renowned choir trainers, singing daily evensong, and a Festal Choral Eucharist and Choral Evensong at the end of the week. The choir for each course is made-up of choristers of choirs from all over the United States and Canada.
In the past two decades our choristers have participated in RSCMA summer courses in Akron, Ohio and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Since 2008, we have been sending some of our Cathedral choristers to the course at St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In late-July of this year, four of our choristers traveled with choristers from the Kirk-in-the-Hills Presbyterian Church (Bloomfiled Hills) to the Wilkes-Barre course, where they sang under the direction of guest conductor Richard Tanner, Organist and Master of the Choristers at Blackburn Cathedral in England.
Housed in the dormitories of King's College, Wilkes-Barre, course participants had three daily rehearsals, and participated in non-musical activities designed to allow young choristers an opportunity to mix with youth from around the country, a common thread being their committed participation in the music of the church.
The week ended with a Festal Choral Eucharist sung by the 150 voice course choir. Choristers had made a preliminary study of the music with their respective choirmasters, and after a week of rigorous rehearsals at Wilkes-Barre, the ensemble sang a rich schedule of sacred music that included the stunning Messe solennel of Louis Vierne, an excerpt of Rachmoninoff's celebrated All-night vigil, and Herbert Howells' Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
Canon Tarrant extends his gratitude to the four choristers from the Cathedral Choir that represented our Cathedral in an admirable fashion, as well as two choir parents, Liz Richards and Peter Bloye who served as chaperones in the journey to Wilkes-Barre.
Photo: Choristers from the Cathedral and the Kirk-in-the-Hills after Sunday evensong at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre, PA.
A busy summer for Cathedral musicians
While the Cathedral Choirs entered their summer recess at the beginning of June, the remainder of the summer did not include a rest from music making for our choristers and Cathedral music staff. First, there was the choirs' trip to Cinicinnati. Then several of our choristers participated in the RSCMA summer course in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Too, all choristers met during four to nine summer sessions here at the Cathedral called "summer tune-ups." These are opportunities for choristers to work on vocal and general music skills away from the pressure of the weekly sung liturgies.
In the middle of all this, our Cathedral music staff did some globe trotting. Cathedral Organist and Choirmaster Jeremy David Tarrant served on the faculty of one of the American Guild of Organists summer Pipe Organ Encounters. The POE programs are week-long sessions for beginning organists, and several POE programs are hald each summer around the US. Closer to home, Canon Tarrant taught at the Ann Arbor POE which took place on the University Michigan Campus as well as in several Ann Arbor churches that were generous in lending their instruments to twenty-five budding organists for the week.
In July, Jeremy David Tarrant traveled to Dijon, France where he played to a crowd of several hundred as the recitalist for the closing concert of International Organ Week. Tarrant was the only American artist in a series of concerts played by organists from South Africa, Russia, France, Italy, and the Czech Republic. Following his July 31 concert in Dijon's Cathedral of St. Benigne, Tarrant was honored with a reception hosted by the Amis d'Orgue de la Cathedrale de Dijon. He then traveled to Wales for three days with his Welsh cousins. (Photos: Jeremy David Tarrant at the console of the organ in Dijon Cathedral; the organ in Dijon Cathedral)
Associate Cathedral Organist Richard Newman took his talents "on the road" in August. He played a concert of the beautiful new organ by Taylor and Boody (American organ builders) in St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Bon Air on August 21.
