The Cathedral Choir (boy choristers) recently returned from a tour to sing in Sweden. This trip marked a couple of important milestones – it was our third trip to Sweden, the thirtieth foreign tour for our choir but the first since 2020 when the pandemic and then associated rules and regulations stopped all such things.

Our oldest sixteen boy choristers, Choral Scholars, Lay Clerks, three organists, two Choir Matrons and a Precentor travelled to Uppsala last week – departing at 5.30am and arriving at our accommodation around twelve hours later! Pre-planning had been meticulous, and no sooner had we landed, the Organ Scholar and Choral Scholars were dispatched to the local supermarket to buy dinner supplies and breakfast foodstuff. Our Choir Matrons, Rachael and Hannah, quickly recced the hostel kitchen and rustled up a meal of Swedish Meatballs, pasta and Lingonberry for the tour party in short order!

Saturday saw an early start to get the train to Stockholm and to the glorious Sofia Church for a morning rehearsal. And then on to the ferry to the Vasa Museum to see Sweden’s very own Mary Rose; after lunch we sang an Afternoon Concert to well over 250 people back at Sofia Church. Our programme featured music by Mozart, Hubert Parry, Philip Stopford, Sarah MacDonald and others. We last sang in this church in 2013 – it’s a bit like a home from home with it’s warm acoustic and a Nicholson organ.

Uppsala Cathedral is the largest cathedral in Scandinavia, and we were warmly welcomed to help lead their Sunday morning ‘High Mass’. The Swedish Lutheran Church is in full communion with The Church of England and so we were able to take communion alongside the congregation. This is always a very moving experience, especially noticing the realisation for the choristers that, despite the language differences, the shape of the Eucharist is so very similar to what we do on a Sunday morning back in Portsmouth, even down to the psalm between readings (see a recording here https://youtu.be/w6LQQxQ6dao). After a quick lunch, we then walked to St Eric’s Parish Church, packed out to hear us sing a Choral Evensong of Philip Moore, Stanford and Wesley. It was lovely too to see some of the Uppsala Cathedral Boy Choristers come to hear us (on their Sunday off); we look forward to building on our links when they make a return visit to sing with us in November.

Spending time surrounded by snow is quite a thing for Portsmouth youngsters, so Sunday’s activities were rounded off by a short (and carefully monitored) snowball fight on the church green. A Greek restaurant awaited us to recover after a very full day. After the busy weekend and half term, the boys deserved a full day off – and so Monday was spent in the local water park and souvenir shopping followed by a trip to the Bowling Alley before heading home on Tuesday.

Why do we tour?

Singing tours are hugely beneficial for a number of reasons…

• The opportunity to sing core repertoire intensively over a few days

• The chance to sing in some of Europe’s most glorious churches and cathedrals

• Choir camaraderie and morale

• To celebrate the Anglican tradition far and wide

• To promote Portsmouth and its cathedral abroad

Tours of this kind make a lasting impact on those who participate – but it has been good to hear from some younger boys how much the tour meant to them.

“The tour to Sweden was fantastic!! Being with the other boys and feeling part of the team. Knowing that people really enjoy hearing us sing and that we can make people happy!”

You may wonder how we funded this trip? Everyone paid to attend the trip (aside from core staff), however the Choir Association were able to finance a number of boys’ places for those who parents could not afford all or part of the costs, and so we remain grateful to all those who organise fundraising events for the PCCA. We thank our generous Swedish hosts and all the adults who helped support and run the trip and from the Cathedral Chapter. Our next planned trip is to Belgium with our girl choristers in December.