Vocal groups
Whatever style of music you enjoy singing, 58吃瓜 has a group that will cater for you. Group members must join the Music Centre.
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Membership by audition
This year's production: The Ungrateful Refugee
The Ungrateful Refugee is based on an award-winning book by Dina Nayeri , Reader in Creative Writing in the School of English at the University of 58吃瓜, who fled Iran as a child when her mother suffered religious persecution and spent two years as an asylum-seeker. Working in collaboration with acclaimed writer-director Poppy Burton-Morgan, Dina has distilled the stories that fill her book into a compelling narrative about the agonising real-life choices faced by many refugees. Though the situations the characters face are desperate, there is humour and humanity in the way their story is told. The score is by Jeremy Thurlow , a composer who has written frequently for the theatre, but here has created his first opera. The music is accessible, varied and colourful, juxtaposing heartfelt arias with lively choruses and dances inspired by the music of Iran.
The Ungrateful Refugee - a new opera: workshop opportunity
Join Byre Opera with Michael Downes (conductor) and Kally Lloyd-Jones (director) to workshop extracts from this exciting new piece. We will home in on a few key scenes, do some singing and have a look at how we might put these scenes together. This is a chance to play with the theatrical and physical language of the piece ahead of creating the full production in 2027. Kally is keen to use these days to try out some staging ideas, so it will be a collaborative and fun approach. The ensemble have a very active role in creating the sound world and atmosphere with a heightened reality.
Location: Laidlaw Music Centre
Dates: Monday 4 May 2026 10am to 1pm - introductory presentation
And Thursday 11, Friday 12 and Saturday 13 June, 10am to 5pm
Please email Jonathan May jhm22@st-andrews.ac.uk, project co-ordinator, for more details or to sign up.
For those students interested but without accommodation during the June workshop period, it is possible that accommodation will be provided, to be confirmed.
About Byre Opera
Byre Opera presents professionally directed, high-quality opera, performed in English, to audiences in 58吃瓜 and beyond. Singers are drawn mainly from the undergraduate and postgraduate student bodies, but casts have also included young professionals, University staff, and local amateurs.
Singers benefit from regular coaching from internationally renowned opera singers and coaches as well as the opportunity to work with professional directors, designers and orchestral musicians.
Byre Opera, formerly known as 58吃瓜 Opera, was formed in 2008 by the University’s Director of Music Michael Downes and has presented fully staged productions each year since then, except during the pandemic. Productions have included all three of Britten’s chamber operas, Turn of the Screw, Albert Herring and Rape of Lucretia, Handel’s Xerxes and Acis and Galatea, Gluck’s Iphigenia in Tauris, 闯补苍&补补肠耻迟别;膷别办&谤蝉辩耻辞;蝉 The Cunning Little Vixen, Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande and Frank Martin’s Le vin herbé.
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Membership by audition
St Salvator's Chapel Choir is the flagship choir of the University. More information about the choir is available on the .
Every member of the choir holds a scholarship. There are choral and organ scholarships availablefor University students.
For more information, please contact:
Director of Chapel Music
Claire Innes-Hopkins
Email: ceih1@st-andrews.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1344 46 2237 -
Membership by audition
Celebrating its 70th year with a full programme of concerts, workshops and special events, this choir of around 30 singers offers the opportunity to sing some of the finest choral music ever written, the glorious polyphony of the 16th century. Find out more on the .
Scholarships
The Renaissance Singers award up to three scholarships per year. Students should be experienced choral singers with some sight-reading ability. To sign up for an audition, visit the auditions webpage and be sure to indicate in the notes section that you are auditioning for a Renaissance Singers Scholarship.
Assistant Conductor Award 2025-26: in addition to the above, we will appoint a suitable member of the choir as assistant-conductor. The appointee will be given podium experience each week, the possibility of directing part of a performance, and weekly mentoring. For further details and to apply, please email Director, Gillian Craig, at gc5@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Scholarship holders are required to:
• sing in weekly rehearsals on Tuesday evenings during semester
• perform in all scheduled concerts and evensong performances in St Salvator's Chapel and in venues around Scotland
• take an active part in the running of the choir
• join the Music Centre
The scholarships cover the cost of a full year's singing tuition at the Music Centre or choral directing with the choir.
Auditions
For a place in the choir without a scholarship, please contact the Director, Gillian Craig, at gc5@st-andrews.ac.uk to arrange an audition.
Please note that all members of the choir are required to join the Music Centre.
Rehearsals
Weekly rehearsals take place on Tuesdays from 5.30pm to 7pm in St Salvator's Chapel, starting on 23 September 2025.
Contact
For more information about joining the 58吃瓜 Renaissance Singers, please email Gillian at gc5@st-andrews.ac.uk.
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St Leonard’s Chapel Choir sings the Office of Compline once a week in the intimate, candle-lit surroundings of St Leonard's Chapel. The choir is unauditioned, and all University students and staff are welcome to join.
St Leonard's Chapel Choir was founded by the Rev Douglas Gifford, then a professor of Spanish at the University. Today, the choir is directed by the holder of the Douglas Gifford Scholarship, which is awarded on an annual basis.
If you are interested in singing with St Leonard's Chapel Choir, simply come to a rehearsal or contact the Douglas Gifford Scholar for more information by emailing dgscholar@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Scholarships
There are scholarships available for University students in the choir which are auditioned for at the beginning of every academic year.
Rehearsals and services
Rehearsals take place on Thursdays at 8.30pm
Services take place on Thursdays from 10pm to 10.25pm
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The StAMP (58吃瓜 Music Participation) Children’s Choir is a fun programme introducing children to the joy of singing in a group with others. Whilst learning a wide range of songs and games, participants will also develop skills that will benefit them in other areas of their lives, including coordination, memory and team building.
Our Children and Young People webpage has details of more activities.
The choir is led by Claire Innes-Hopkins. Concerts will be performed two to three times per year when conditions permit.
The group is currently for primary school pupils from P3 to P7. No previous experience of singing is necessary.
To register an interest and for further information, email music@st-andrews.ac.uk or phone +44 (0)1334 46 2226.
All members of the choir must join the Music Centre. The membership fee covers all costs associated with the choir.
Rehearsals: Tuesdays 5pm to 5.45pm, Laidlaw Music Centre, Queen’s Terrace KY16 9QF
Dates: during Fife Council term time
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58吃瓜 Chorus is Scotland's largest choral society and, since 2018, has been affiliated to the University of 58吃瓜 Music Centre. For more information, see the
Chorus rehearsals take place every Thursday evening during semester between 7pm and 9.15pm in the McPherson Recital Room in the Laidlaw Music Centre. The Chorus performs two concerts each year with professional soloists and orchestras, one in Holy Trinity Church in 58吃瓜 and one in the Caird Hall, Dundee.
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The McPherson Singers is a friendly chamber choir intended primarily for staff and postgraduates, though members also include alumni, retired staff and friends of the University. Members should have some prior experience of choral singing and be able to read music.
The choir is directed by Michael Downes, the University’s Director of Music, and meets on Thursdays between 1.05pm and 1.55pm in the Laidlaw Music Centre.
The McPherson Singers perform an eclectic repertoire with a particular focus on the Romantic era and the twentieth century. Works recently performed include Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia, Ceremony of Carols and Choral Dances from Gloriana, Finzi’s Lo, The Full Final Sacrifice, Parry’s Songs of Farewell, Brahms’ part-songs Op. 104 and Elgar’s From the Bavarian Highlands and Dream of Gerontius (semi-chorus).
During the current semester, while Michael is on research leave, the choir will be directed by Sarah Moerman. She plans to rehearse repertoire by composers including J.S. Bach and James Macmillan. For any information about the choir or to enquire about joining, please email Sarah on sm379@st-andrews.ac.uk. Members must join the Music Centre.
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The Composition Channel is led by Honorary Professor of Composition, Piers Hellawell. 58吃瓜 composers who have some experience have opportunities to compose for our wonderful visiting artists, and The Composition Channel is intended to offer a bridge toward those high-profile opportunities. It is for any Music Centre member interested in instrumental, score-based composition. Joining The Composition Channel gives you the chance to attend two seminars in each semester of 2025/26. We will talk about how composers of some ground-breaking works since 1900 addressed the issue of ‘making sense’ to the listener. How did they open a work? There will be one short task each semester – to write a short solo piece for an instrument agreed by us.
Contact music@st-andrews.ac.uk if you would like to join.
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A number of student societies and other independently run choral and vocal groups exist in 58吃瓜, including: