St. John's College in Cambridge has recently gone under fire for its decision to axe its leading mixed choir in favor of a much "broader" range of music, something that will also leave the ensemble's director of music, Graham Walker, without a post.
Canceling the funding of St. John's Voices (SJV), a choir comprising both male and female singers that have been performing since 2013, will purportedly "diminish" the "equal opportunities" that the "British choral tradition" has been historically inundated with, SJV said.
(Photo : St. John's Voices via YouTube)
The Ensuing Row Between SJV and Cambridge's St. John's College
The news was first publicized in a post on X (formerly Twitter) where SJV wrote: "We were devastated to hear yesterday that the college has decided to disband SJV at the end of this academic year."
"We are so proud of what we have achieved and will miss singing together every Monday," it added.
After a couple of days, on Thursday, March 21, SJV posted an open letter addressed to the University of Cambridge institution with an attached link to a petition and a call to action.
Alongside SJV members, some of the open letter's signatories include the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Sir Simon Rattle, Dame Sarah Connolly, and Aled Jones.
The letter alleged that the college's initiative to allow women to create a choral group back in 2022 was twisted into a "weaponized" justification for SJV's disbandment, which will leave 14 of its female members without an avenue to express their musical needs come June 2024.
"We are devastated by this decision, which we believe is a fundamentally regressive move for the college, the choral community in Cambridge, and the wider arts provision for women in the UK," read the open letter.
In a response to SJV, St. John's College said in a statement: "Students' preferences and experiences in music today are different from those of previous generations, and many of them have had fewer musical opportunities in school than might have been the case in the past."
Because of this back and forth, some reports have described the ensuing row as a battle between traditional ideals and more progressive notions, which primarily surround concepts like diversity and inclusion.
Whatever the case may be, the loss of SJV will be monumental, which is apparent even in its recent concert featuring choral works by Rachmaninov and Golovanov last Thursday, March 21.
In its last decade or so of existence in the college, the ensemble has regularly performed for services, concerts, and even events in the institution's prestigious and famed chapel. This is something that may just be a memory come June.
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