A Musician of Little Consequence

‘the protests are robbing my Columbia students of listening to John Cage’s 4’33, the piece of music that is explicitly designed to force you to listen to…what’s around you.’ absolutely perfect

[not a meme] Choristers grow up with a love of music, a love of singing. Since the 90s this privilege has increasingly been enjoyed by all, regardless of gender. When the boys grow up, they can become basses, tenors - even countertenors for the really brave. When the girls grow up, they have limited options - to become altos, if their voice is so inclined - largely because the selfsame system in which they themselves became passionate about choral music employs the children they once were. It is something with frustratingly limited solutions. St John's Voices, however, is - soon to be was - one of those solutions. A mixed voice choir enabling all people to continue to love the choral music they fell for. And it is also a choir for all those who realised too late in life that they could have become choristers and felt they had missed that opportunity completely. With SJV, that opportunity was there. Not just the traditional cathedral/chapel choir setup of trebles and adults, but mixed voice adults enabling sopranos to flourish. The choral community saved the BBC Singers. Can we save SJV?