The Southern Cross | March 2025

Evening Mass-goers at St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral were recently treated to the heavenly sounds of a 54-strong boys’ choir from the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in London.

Known as the Schola Cantorum, the liturgical choir comprises boys aged from 11 to 18 whose primary responsibility is to serve the school’s liturgy, including singing at weekly Mass.

The Schola also frequently performs at prestigious venues and events across the United Kingdom, including Westminster Cathedral and the BBC Proms, and travels extensively around the world. However, this was the choir’s first trip to Australia.

The choristers’ voices have featured on several high-profile film soundtracks including Harry Potter, The Batman, Rocketman and the Oscar-winning score for Life of Pi.

Malakai Bayoh, who made the semi finals of Britain’s Got Talent, was among the choristers who travelled to Australia for a nine-day tour in February.

The talented 13 year old has performed solo high profile events such as the FA Cup Final and his album ‘Golden' reached number one in the Classical Album Charts.

The Australian tour included performances at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, the Melbourne Recital Centre, St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne and St Peter’s Cathedral, Adelaide.

Directed by Scott Price, the choir requested to sing the Mass at St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral on February 19, prior to performing a concert at St Peter’s on February 20.

Taking a break from rehearsals to speak to The Southern Cross, Mr Price stressed that the choir’s origins came from the school’s Catholic faith and anything outside of that was a “bonus”.

“It’s the liturgy, that is at the heart of what we do, that’s what I tell the boys, it’s the core of it,” he said.

“The boys sing every day; it works much as a Cathedral choir would run, rehearsing every day and we sing a weekly service at the school as well as on feast days and special occasions.”

Based at Kensington, in West London, the school offers music scholarships and many students go on to professional singing.

“Some have gone on to do very well and there is lots of other music-making and instrumental programs at the school as well,” he said.

“We have organists and non-church music, we do a lot of jazz music, so it’s quite a varied program that we offer.”

Referring to the choir’s involvement in musicals at Covent Garden, film sound tracks and “glamorous things like that”, he reiterated the boys liked to think that this was “key to what we do”.

“But really it’s this (singing the Mass).”

Mr Price has accompanied the choir all around the world since taking on the role of director of music in 2001 and has taught at the school since 1995. Recent destinations include South Africa, the US, Spain, France, Italy, Poland and Germany.

“South Africa was a wonderful trip, going on safari, as well as the extraordinary singing culture they have there,” he said.

“It was a glorious experience.

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