Music

Truro Cathedral Music Fund

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 08:16:00 GMT

Truro Cathedral is establishing a new £5 million fund to secure its musical heritage for future generations.

“Truro Cathedral boasts one of the nation’s finest choirs. Every time I hear them broadcast I am deeply impressed by the vitality and quality of what they deliver.”
Petroc Trelawny, BBC Radio and TV Presenter

Over decades, the cathedral has gained a reputation for musical excellence, building an ecosystem of creativity, skills, facilities and repertoire. The fund will help to secure this precious asset, enabling it to be passed on to future generations.

Truro Cathedral strives to be a welcoming and inclusive environment: sacred space and common ground. The musical tradition is integral to that purpose: a public good, with a foot in both sacred and secular camps, available to all.

How much does the music cost?

Spending on music currently stands at c.£420,000 annually. This is the cost of the director and assistant director of music, an organ scholar and the choir – a blend of part-time adult professionals, early-career choral scholars and young choristers – assisted by a team of support staff and volunteers, plus overheads such as musical instruments, music, printing, marketing and licensing fees.

Truro School contributes to the costs of the chorister programme through scholarships and bursaries in the region of £137,000. The remaining c.£283,000 is funded by the cathedral, largely through grants, donations, ticket sales and gifts in Wills. £100,000 per year of the cathedral’s share was previously covered by a local charity, but this has now come to an end. Since then we have faced a significant shortfall in excess of £167,000 each year that we are unable to afford.

What is at risk?

There is an imminent risk that the opportunity to hear outstanding choral music in the beautiful setting of the cathedral a Cornish cultural jewel for nearly 150 years – will be lost forever.

What will the fund be for?

A new £5 million non-expendable, restricted fund for music, held in an externally-managed investment fund, has been established to secure the future of cathedral music in Cornwall. Will you help to support it?

Contact the Dean for an initial conversation: CMF@trurocathedral.org.uk

DONATE NOW

Fund Governance

The cathedral has established a fund held with CCLA Investment Management, ensuring ethical management and investment of the funds raised. All donations to this non-expendable fund will be restricted for the benefit of Truro Cathedral Music only.

Funds generously donated to the Truro Cathedral Music Fund will be held securely through robust governance arrangements, including an independent signatory which ensures that funds held can only be used for their restricted purpose, and cannot be withdrawn or misused.

As the fund grows towards its initial target of £5m it will generate a regular yield. This yield will be the means through which the fund supports the shortfall in cathedral music.

The fund will have an immediate impact on the sustainability of cathedral music from the moment the first donations are made.

DONATE NOW

The home of classical music in Cornwall

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 12:37:00 GMT

Truro Cathedral has an awe-inspiring interior, excellent performance and rehearsal facilities, great acoustics, and well-maintained pianos and organs. For all these reasons, it is a popular venue for musicians and audiences alike.

We are the performance home of three choirs: Three Spires Singers and Orchestra, Truro Choral Society, and St Mary’s Singers. These groups all commission new music and involve several hundred amateur singers in regular high quality performances.

We also work in partnership with ASONE Music Education Hub and Cornwall Music Service Trust to run Cornwall Junior Choir and Cornwall Youth Chamber Choir.

Past and future performers include:

Cornwall community groups and schools (e.g. Richard Lander School, Callington Singers, Truro Symphony Orchestra, Cornwall Youth Orchestra, East Cornwall Bach Choir, Cornwall Community Choir)
Visiting choirs and orchestras (e.g. Gloucestershire Police Choir, Cornwall International Male Choral Festival, Cantica Viva, Leicester Cathedral Choir, Sanderstead Singers, Wheatsheaf Consort)
Leading professional groups (e.g. The Sixteen, Tenebrae, City of London Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales)

Support our music

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 19:55:00 GMT

Music is central to the life of Truro Cathedral, which has a growing reputation as a venue where many famous choirs and individual artists perform. The music department relies on the support of the public to maintain both the Father Willis Organ and choir. If you're a fan of music at the cathedral, there are various ways in which you can help; become a member of Truro Cathedral Music, or sponsor a chorister.

Please visit our Donations Page to donate to Truro Cathedral Choir

Truro Cathedral Choir

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 12:55:00 GMT

“Truro Cathedral boasts one of the nation’s finest choirs. Every time I hear them broadcast I am deeply impressed by the vitality and quality of what they deliver.” - Petroc Trelawny, BBC Radio 3 and TV presenter

You can hear the choir for free at services – usually Sundays at 10:00 and 16:00, and weekdays at 17:30. Please check our listings on the Services page. Everyone is welcome, either in person or via our YouTube channel.

Our concerts are advertised on our What’s On page. Free tickets are often available for under-18s.

Truro Cathedral Choir has an unbroken tradition dating back to the 1880s. The choir currently has 12 adult professional singers and 34 boy and girl choristers. We perform much-loved works from the last five centuries of the Anglican Choral Tradition, and are also proud to commission and record new choral works by established composers, as well as promising young artists.

The choir perform in concerts at home and abroad, on broadcasts and recordings, inspiring others and raising awareness of the power of music.

St Mary’s Singers

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 12:55:00 GMT

St Mary’s Singers is the voluntary choir for Truro Cathedral. This fine chamber choir is directed by Truro Cathedral’s Assistant Director of Music. St Mary’s Singers consists of approximately 35 singers. The choir sings in several Truro Cathedral services, as well as performing concerts throughout the year.

Visiting Choirs

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 12:55:00 GMT

Truro Cathedral welcomes visiting choirs to sing services whilst Truro Cathedral Choir is on holiday.

Visiting Choirs Calendar Summer 2025

Choral music is a central feature of our Christian worship, and we welcome visiting choirs primarily during the summer holiday months, but also at other times when Truro Cathedral Choir is not in residence. As well as offering a warm welcome to Cornwall, we offer visiting choirs a generous acoustic accompaniment through our famous Father Willis organ.

There are many things to do and see in Cornwall during a period of residence - a county with wonderful landscapes and rich culture.

We would love to hear from you if you are interested in being a visiting choir for Truro Cathedral. Please contact info@trurocathedral.org.uk

Father Willis Organ

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 12:55:00 GMT

The Father Willis Organ is one of three organs at Truro Cathedral. Delivered by boat and installed in 1887, it has an almost identical specification to the organ Henry Willis built a year earlier for the then parish church of St Michael, Coventry (later Coventry Cathedral). In terms of specification, both instruments revealed standard Willis hallmarks – tierce mixtures on Great and Swell, characterful gedackts on the choir, and a small but telling pedal division.

Willis is considered one of the greatest organ builders there has ever been. At Truro, we see the quintessence of his art as a voicer. We are most fortunate that the instrument has survived tonally intact. The fine position of the instrument in its own rib vaulted chamber certainly adds to its impact and it matches the resonant cathedral acoustic perfectly. Note that the nave of the cathedral was not constructed until the first decade of the 20th century, so Willis voiced the organ for a building that did not actually exist in its entirety!

Willis built an organ of superb reliability. Apart from the addition of the electric blower in the 1920s, no major work was done until 1963, when the grandson of the original builder carried out a conservative restoration, at a cost of some £17,000. Prior to this date, the organ console was situated high up within the main case of the instrument. This meant a walk of two or three minutes up a spiral staircase in the North Transept (perhaps this explains the longevity and fitness of F G Ormond, organist from 1929-70!). The action was a mixture of Barker lever, pneumatic and tracker. There were very few playing aids and contact between the organist and choir, some forty feet below, must have been almost impossible.

In 1963, the organ committee, including Henry Willis, Guillaume Ormond, Sir John Dykes Bower and Roger Yates, wisely decided to keep the original tonal scheme and voicing and to move the console over onto the south side in a new gallery placed above the cathedral choir stalls to a design by the architect John Phillips. Here the organist can not only hear the instrument in its full glory but also maintain close contact with Truro Cathedral Choir.

In 1991, after twenty-eight years of splendid service, the organ was again fully restored, this time by the organ builders N P Mander Ltd of London. Managing Director of Mander’s, Ian Bell, summarised the aims of the 1991 rebuild:

“The work on the organ in 1991 has included the renewal of all the low-voltage electrical equipment installed in 1963, both in the console and in the organ itself. The system is now entirely solid-state, and the opportunity has been taken to upgrade the controls available to the organist, to bring the instrument into line with present-day standards. The outer cladding of the console, and all of the ivory fittings, have been retained and refurbished, but all of the internal equipment is new.”

“Up in the organ, again all electrical equipment and cabling have been renewed. All of the delicate leatherwork in the key mechanism has also been replaced, and several of the large reservoirs which store the wind pressure have also had their leatherwork renewed. The action of the stops, which was entirely operated by human power until 1963, was converted to a pneumatic system at that time. This has now been upgraded to powerful and silent electric solenoids.”

“The large soundboards which support the pipes, and supply them with wind-pressure, have all been taken back to London and completely overhauled. The access ladders and walkways have been improved, and the humidification system enhanced.”

“The organ has once more been left completely unchanged tonally; damaged pipes have been carefully repaired and cleaned, but the sound has been jealously preserved. Only one modification has been undertaken – the loudest solo stop, the Tuba, has always received criticism for being uncharacteristically modest. In a Willis organ, the Tuba normally balances the Pedal reed in power, but at Truro, this has not been the case, since the pipes were rather buried in the depths of the instrument.”

“It was therefore decided not to alter the Tuba but to move it to the front of the organ where it could be heard to rather better effect. This has resulted in a considerable improvement, but all of the original mechanism has been left in place in case anyone wishes to move the pipes back in future. In every other respect, the instrument sounds exactly as it did when first built 103 years ago.”

James Anderson-Besant is the eleventh organist of Truro Cathedral. Before him were G R Sinclair 1881-1890 (later organist of Hereford Cathedral), M J Monk 1890-1920, H S Middleton 1920-1926 (later organist of Ely Cathedral and Trinity College, Cambridge), John Dykes Bower 1926-1929 (later organist of New College, Oxford, Durham Cathedral and St Paul’s Cathedral), Guillaume Ormond 1929-1970, John Winter 1971-1988 (Organist Emeritus), David Briggs 1989-1994 (later organist of Gloucester Cathedral, and now International Concert Organist), Andrew Nethsingha 1994-2002 (later Director of Music at St John's College, Cambridge, and now Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey), Robert Sharpe 2002-2008 (now Director of Music at York Minster), and Christopher Gray 2008-2023 (now Director of Music at St John's College, Cambridge).

Truro Cathedral Bells

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 12:55:00 GMT

The cathedral is a ring of twelve bells and is the only twelve-bell tower in Cornwall. Originally ten bells were hung and dedicated on the 21 June 1910. An additional four bells were added in 2011.

The ring of twelve bells is in the key of Db with two semitones which allows for different combinations of bells to be rung:

A ring of twelve
Two rings of ten
Two rings of eight
Four rings of six.

The bells are normally rung every Sunday for the Eucharist service and Evensong, other special services, weddings and funerals and to mark special occasions of local and national significance.

Ringing for the Eucharist every Sunday between 9:30 and 10:00
Ringing for Evensong every Sunday between 15:30 and 16:00 (this can vary)

The Bellringing is led by our Ringing Master Hayley Young (07855 326 144) and Vice Ringing Master Andrew G Smith (07919 957404). The bell ringers practice most Tuesday evenings between 19:30 and 21:00. Visiting ringers are welcome to join us for both practice and service ringing (please check the bell ringers' diary below, which can be subject to change).

If you're thinking of visiting us, we politely request that you please make contact in advance by emailing bellringers@trurocathedral.org.uk for further information and instruction on how, when and where to enter the cathedral. We reserve the right to refuse entry to any persons who have not made contact in advance. We will ask that you're happy to read and follow Truro Cathedral's Safeguarding Policy and other specific documents prior to your visit.

Bell Ringers Diary 2026

Read the blog on the history of the bells by Robert Perry, former ringing master at Truro Cathedral

Recordings of bell ringing at Truro Cathedral

See and hear the bells being rung to Stedman Cinques, recorded by Cathedral ringer Jemma Hoare

Hear the sound of the twelve bells ringing Grandsire Cinques, recorded by cathedral ringer Eric Bannister: