King’s College, Cambridge to launch all-female choir for first time in its history

17 December 2025, 16:30 | Updated: 18 December 2025, 08:00


The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is one of the world’s best known choral groups. Picture: Courtesy of King’s College, Cambridge

By Hazel Davis

Over five centuries since its founding, King’s College, Cambridge is introducing its first all-female choral ensemble.

King’s College, Cambridge is to establish an all-female choir for the first time in its history. ... The new ensemble, expected to begin next year, will sit alongside the world-famous King’s College Choir and the mixed-voice King’s Voices, which was set up in 1997 in order to give women a go.

The Times reported that a recent job advert in the university newspaper Varsity for the college’s new assistant director of music, Australian conductor and composer Owen Elsley, stated that a core responsibility of the post would be “to pursue the development of an all-female chamber group … active in repertoire and performance outside and beyond the [existing] chapel services”.

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Founded in the 15th century, Kings College Choir is well known for its TV broadcasts and recordings. Women and girls will continue to be excluded from this choir, something that has drawn criticism from some parts.

Students set up the King’s Women and Marginalised Genders (KWMG) choir in 2022. KWMG co-founder Lucy Gabb told Varsity at the time that “ultimately, women and girls must be allowed into [the original KCC]”. ... She described the new ensemble as “really disappointing” if it simply maintains “elitist, selective traditions”.

King’s has yet to issue a full official statement about the new choir.