Edinburgh Schools Singing Programme Launch

St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral is pleased to announce the launch of the Edinburgh Schools Singing Programme this week! Providing weekly, curriculum-based singing lessons to state school primary classes, the programme will see hundreds of Edinburgh's children receiving professional-standard vocal tuition throughout the school year. Our Edinburgh programme forms part of the acclaimed National Schools Singing Programme, whose Patron is Sir John Rutter.

Duncan Ferguson, the Cathedral's Director of Music, said: 'We are delighted to be working with several Edinburgh primary schools to provide weekly singing to children in their school classes, developing a culture of excellence in singing at schools and in the wider community. The educational, social and health benefits of regular choral singing are well known'. Additional to the school classes, after-school choirs are being formed which will draw together pupils from different schools and backgrounds, offering further opportunities for practice and performance at an exceptional standard.

The Singing Programme builds on recent efforts by the Cathedral to share its expertise in choral singing. The Cathedral has led singing workshops in several primary schools over recent years and the weekly singing programme ran in one school in 2024-5. To enable the expansion and delivery of the full programme, Katrina MacKinnon has been appointed as St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral's new Schools Choral Director. Canadian-born Katrina holds an MA in choral conducting from the Liszt Academy in Budapest and is an established singer, conductor, pianist, and leader of children's choirs. Ahead of commencing her new role in Edinburgh, Katrina said: 'I am thrilled to bring the joy of choral singing to primary school children across Edinburgh. I am inspired by the work the National Schools Singing Programme does throughout the UK. The next generation has discovered the unifying power of choral music'. 

The Provost of the Cathedral, Very Rev John Conway, welcomes this exciting addition to the Cathedral's music programme, which already includes its choristerships for boys and girls aged 9-14, regular children's singing events in the Cathedral and the Cathedral youth choir. He said: ‘The Edinburgh Schools Singing Programme enables us to take the musical training and excellence that is at the heart of the Cathedral’s life, out into the wider community of Edinburgh’s schools. We are pleased to make this opportunity available to Edinburgh’s young children to discover the joy of singing together. We look forward to joining many others in hearing the music-making that Katrina enables across our city.’

For more information, please contact the Cathedral’s Publicity and Communications Officer, Tim Coleman, on publicity@cathedral.net.