Students in King’s College’s mixed choir have criticised the College over the lack of opportunities for female singers.

Female choral scholars have complained of a lack of investment from the College into King’s Voices, resulting in a significant decline in quality. This has led some women to leave the choir.

The Choir of King’s College (KCC) is the last main college choir with no women in Cambridge. King’s Voices (KV) was founded in 1997 to give women “the opportunity to contribute vocally to the musical life of the College”.

However, female choral scholars have complained about the College’s lack of care for their only mixed choir, with one source calling it a “pity prize for women”.

One choral scholar told Varsity that the equipment was “falling apart” and that “the room allocated for KV rehearsals has notoriously poor acoustics”.

Another source claimed that “King’s lull women into a lie that they can be women choral scholars”.

In February this year, a thirty minute meeting was scheduled for choir members to share their concerns with the Dean, Stephen Cherry, and the Choir Director, Daniel Hyde.

Daniel Hyde has been the director of King’s College Choir since 2018. Upon his appointment, Lesley Garrett, a world-famous soprano singer directly called on him to set the precedent of letting women into the choir, labelling KCC as a “throwback to a bygone age”.

A number of students expressed their frustrations with King’s treatment of KV during the meeting in February. One male student stated that that “he has talked to many women in KV over the years who have said they feel systemically under-appreciated and oppressed at King’s in regard to music,” according to notes of the meeting taken by attendees.

Concerns were also raised about the financial compensation given to members of the College’s male-only choir. KCC singers received a payment of £70 per concert (totalling approximately £600-800 per term), while King’s Voices students performed all concerts for free. This included concerts with KCC, for which the male choristers were paid.

Additionally, female choral scholars, called “exhibitioners,” do not receive free long-contract accommodation at King’s, nor are they paid the £300 fee per recording studio session, unlike the male choristers.

This comes after Varsity revealed that St John’s Chapel Choir received over 17 times more funding than their recently axed mixed gender choir, St John’s Voices.

The College is yet to make any material changes to KV or issue an apology following the the meeting.

An ex-female choral scholar told Varsity that the constant mistreatment of women in the choir led to a decline in her mental health and influenced her decision to leave: “I wasn’t treated with kindness or grace when I raised issues. I was treated like a troublemaker.”

This comes after St John’s College axed their mixed choir in a move described as “crazy” by its members. Despite a campaign led by St John’s Voices, with their petition amassing over 15,000 signatures, the College refused to reinstate the choir.

The petition was signed multiple prominent figures including former Archbishop of Canterbury and ex-Magdalene College master Rowan Williams. The petition labelled St John’s decision to stop funding the mixed-gender choir as “fundamentally regressive”.

The successor to SJV, Cambridge University Schola Cantorum (CUSC), launched earlier this term and held it’s first recital earlier this year.

A spokesperson for King’s College said: “Aware of the changing landscape of the collegiate choral world, the College Council set up a Working Group on the College Choirs last year which is expected to report during this academic year”.