Peterborough International Women’s Choral Festival 2023
Peterborough welcomes women’s choirs of the world…
Peterborough Voices were delighted to welcome choirs from across the UK and beyond to the inaugural Peterborough International Women’s Choral Festival, an exciting new weekend event for female choirs, which took place in the historic UK city of Peterborough on 16th-19th June 2023. The Festival was made possible by public funding from Arts Council England.
As well as a gala concert at Peterborough’s spectacular Norman cathedral, there were competition classes, informal singing opportunities, workshops and seminars, all centred around Peterborough’s scenic Cathedral Square.
Focusing on the female experience of choral singing, the Festival set out to champion women’s choirs and female composers, bringing together groups from across the UK and beyond to celebrate the quality and ambition of women’s singing internationally and to reflect the cultural diversity of our beautiful city…
Practical workshops with international specialists (see below) helped develop the creative and technical skills of singers and music leaders, while a series of seminars explored the application of business methodologies to the various challenges facing women’s choirs today, including recruitment, retention, diversity, research, repertoire, commissioning, and more!
Women’s choirs and ensembles of all sizes, ages and traditions took part in this wonderful weekend full of challenge, inspiration and friendship, supporting each other to be their very best through collaboration, performance and the exchange of ideas.
Participating choirs were - in no particular order - Elektra Women’s Choir, The Chanterelles, Decibelles Ladies Choir, Swift Singers, Phoenix Chorus, Jubilate, Paddock Singers, Lemon Tuesday, Cantatrice and host choir Peterborough Voices.
See below for more information on our participating choirs…
Meet our participating choirs…
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Elektra Women's Choir
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The Chanterelles
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Decibelles Ladies Choir
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Swift Singers
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Phoenix Chorus
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Jubilate
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Paddock Singers
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Lemon Tuesday
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Cantatrice
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William Prideaux
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Morna Edmundson
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Thomas Caplin
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Karen England
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Shirley Court
Festival Commissions
Three new works for women’s voices by female composers were commissioned for the Festival:
Marie-Claire Saindon - Keeping Time for Joy
Cheryl Frances-Hoad - The Jewel Beyond Price
Joan Szymko - At The Spring Dawn
These were premiered by The Chanterelles, Jubilate and Peterborough Voices at the Festival Gala Concert at Peterborough Cathedral on Saturday 17th June 2023.
Meet our pop-up community choir!
Latvian pop-up choir
Perkins pop-up choir
As part of our strategy for the inaugural Peterborough International Women’s Choral Festival to build connections, reach out to new audiences and be more representative of the city of Peterborough, we included a project-based pop-up choir in our work. The group included employees from Perkins - one of Peterborough’s largest employers, where women are a minority in the workplace - and members of the Peterborough Latvian community. After just five weeks’ rehearsal with Peterborough Sings! director William Prideaux, they performed for the first time in public in Peterborough’s Cathedral Square and at the Festival Gala Concert in Peterborough Cathedral. They sang the traditional Latvian folksong Bedu Manu Lielu Bedu which gave the Latvian women a great sense of ownership and made them ‘very proud!’, and their performances drew a large number of supporters from the Latvian community and beyond. For most of the women this was their first performance in a choir and we hope that this will mark the beginning of an exciting and rewarding singing journey for them…
Our feedback…
Meet host choir Peterborough Voices
Festival Sponsors:
We would like to thank our sponsors Perkins, Greenwoods and Peterborough City Council, the teams at Peterborough Cathedral and University Centre Peterborough, Scops Arts Trust and Arts Council England for awarding us the funding to make this festival possible.