Worcester College has a launched a unique outreach programme for budding choral singers.

The Oxford Choral Experience will bring together prospective students from state schools across the UK to make music and experience all that Oxford has to offer undergraduate singers. The residential weekend – the first of its kind in Oxford or Cambridge – will be led by Caius Lee, Director of College Music, and will feature tuition, performances, and a workshop delivered by the internationally-renowned composers and conductors Bob Chilcott and Paul McCreesh.

At Worcester, we believe that our educational opportunities should be accessible to everyone with the ability and potential to benefit from them. We champion equality of opportunity and prioritise access to the University of Oxford for the most academically able students from under-represented backgrounds. Our outreach and admissions team work closely with teachers and potential applicants to enable young people with a passion for learning to make informed choices about their futures.

The Oxford Choral Experience complements our outreach initiatives and has been devised in response to the diminishing opportunities available to study and perform music in state schools. A 2019 report, Music Education: State of the Nation, found that in more than 50% of state secondary schools music was not taught throughout Key Stage 3 (the minimum provision of the National Curriculum), leading to music education becoming ‘the preserve only of those that can afford to access it outside of the classroom’. Meanwhile, a 2022 survey, Music: A Subject in Peril?, reported that the mean yearly music budget in maintained schools was just £1,865 in contrast to £9,917 in the independent sector.

Worcester’s Choir is unique in Oxford in maintaining a choral tradition in which alto, tenor, and bass choral scholars are joined alternately by adult sopranos and boy trebles. The Choir sings four times a week in term and performs a wide-ranging repertoire, from plainsong and Renaissance polyphony to newly commissioned works by living composers. The Choir is part of our rich heritage of distinguished composers and music-making and a key strand of our Music at Worcester programme.

Read more about the Oxford Choral Experience