The University of Oxford’s Magdalen College Choir, one of England’s oldest and most distinguished collegiate choirs, will admit girl choristers from September 2027, ending an all-male tradition that has continued since the choir’s foundation in 1480.

Until now, Magdalen College Choir has consisted of boy choristers drawn from Magdalen College School alongside adult clerks. The change follows on from Magdalen College School’s decision to transition to a mixed school. Girls will be welcomed into years three and four in September 2027, and into year seven from 2030.

Magdalen College Choir. Photo supplied

The choir, based at the University of Oxford college where conductor and broadcaster Anna Lapwood studied organ, has traditionally comprised boy choristers from Magdalen College School alongside adult clerks. Since 2010, women students have sung weekly chapel services through the Consort of Voices.

Director of Music Mark Williams, who holds the historic title Informator Choristarum, described the move as “quite a turning point” in the ensemble’s near 550-year history. He said the first girls would sing as trebles from the top of Magdalen Tower for the college’s famed May Morning ceremony in 2028, with the first fully mixed treble line expected in 2032.

“Our first female organ scholar, Anna Lapwood, came to Magdalen in 2013 and has gone on to a highly successful career,” Williams added. “The introduction of women altos as Academical Clerks a few years ago brought a new and valuable element to both our sound and our community, and I am confident that girl choristers will enhance and enrich our choir family in many ways.”

To support the change, the number of chorister places will rise from 12 to 18, with additional bursaries introduced. The college currently covers 60 per cent of choristers’ fees and will, in addition, establish a new top-up bursary fund to pay up to 100 per cent of fees for choristers whose families need additional financial support.

Founded under statutes providing for 16 singing boys, eight clerks and four chaplains, Magdalen College Choir remains central to daily worship in the college chapel and has built an international reputation through tours, recordings and broadcasts. The ensemble has appeared at the BBC Proms and collaborated with leading orchestras including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

The move reflects wider changes across Britain’s choral sector. In recent years Windsor Chapel Choir and St Paul’s Cathedral Choir both admitted girls, while King’s College, Cambridge launched its first all-female choir in late 2025.