Visiting Choirs

Choirs can sing for services when the Cathedral Choir is not available. During term time, Mondays are the quiet day and so are available for visiting choirs. Other holidays include half terms (in February, May and October) and the Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays. We give preference to choirs in the summer who are able to sing for an entire week. Please get in contact to find out which dates are currently available – gaps are often filled more than a year in advance and we are currently taking bookings until 2027.

We ask that choirs bring a maximum of 36 singers, as this is the number that can comfortably sit into our choir stalls. If your choir is larger than this, please let us know when you begin your booking so we can see if it is possible to accommodate you.

If your choir is singing Evensong, we have a set list of Responses and your director can pick one of these. Your music choice is yours to make, though we ask you to think about the liturgical season of your visit and the day of the week when you are deciding. We may ask you to change one of your selections if another choir has already put it down to avoid duplication or if we think it is liturgically unsuitable.

Please email Jasmine Oakes to find a date when your choir might be able to sing at Durham Cathedral. In order to secure your booking, you will need to send in a recording of your choir singing music that would be suitable for a service (including a portion of psalm singing). Once this has been approved, your visit will be confirmed and you will sent the visiting choir forms to fill out and further information about your visit. These cover safeguarding, copyright and sending in your music choices for checking. Once these are fixed, you’ll be ready for your visit to sing at Durham.