The Cathedral Choir consists of sixteen trebles (boys and girls) and nine Lay-Clerks, who are all professional singers in and around Manchester.  The Choir is directed by the Organist & Master of the Choristers, Christopher Stokes. The children attend the internationally renowned Chetham’s School of Music, next to the Cathedral, from the age of eight until thirteen. At that point, many re-enter the school as instrumentalists and remain until they complete their secondary education. This affords them an unparalleled musical education in a city renowned for its musical prowess.

In addition to the Opus Dei of daily choral services in the Cathedral, the choir takes on a number of outside engagements, recordings and broadcasts on national television and radio.  They have sung for the BBC Radio 4 ‘Midnight Mass’, BBC TV Songs of Praise and, recently, the choristers were the main feature in a BBC TV documentary on cathedral choirs.

The choir has a very large repertoire covering music from plainsong to the present day.  In 2000, it sang the world premiere in Manchester of Naji Hakim’s new setting of the Mass; a work specially commissioned by the Cathedral Chapter for the millennium celebrations. In the summer of 2000 the choir spent a week in Paris, where it gave the French premiere of Hakim’s Messe Solennelle at the church of St. Eustache.  The choir recorded the work on the Herald label and received numerous good reviews including a four-star rating in BBC Music Magazine, who praised the choir’s ‘fine level of ensemble’ and ‘robust tone’. Since then, it has performed a number of new commissions.  The choir tours frequently, both in Europe and the USA.

The choir was invited by the Royal College of Organists to give a concert at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, as part of the finals of its Performer of the Year competition. They have also performed another concert for BBC Radio 3’s Choirworks from the hall.