
Drawn from local Cambridge schools, the 20 young voices of St Catharine’s make up the only college-based girls’ choir in the country, one that since its inception in 2008 has committed itself to performing new music. As more choral foundations are establishing girls’ choirs, so the repertoire for upper voices is gradually expanding, with some interesting examples here from Judith Bingham, Cecilia McDowell and Stevie Wishart. Highlights include Kenneth Leighton’s pungent Missa Cornelia (1980), but the most successful piece in this collection is Joanna Marsh’s 2010 St Paul’s Service, which imaginatively pulls the harmonic idioms of 16th-century choral music into attractive new polyphony, splendidly performed by these exceptionally well-trained singers.
