Mother and Daughter Join Cathedral Choirs as Lay Vicars

In a lovely piece of good news, a mother and daughter have been appointed as alto lay vicars in two different UK cathedrals.

Lay Vicars are professional adult singers who sing the alto, tenor and bass line in cathedral choirs. Throughout history this has been exclusively a male profession, but this began to change in the late twentieth century as cathedrals across the UK started introducing girl choristers either in their own choir or mixed with the boy’s choirs, as well as women joining as adult professionals.

Ailsa Cochrane joined Lichfield Cathedral as an alto lay vicar, having been a vocal tutor to the boy choristers since 2007, and continues to teach the choristers and choral scholars at Lichfield Cathedral School. Ailsa is the first full time female lay vicar at Lichfield Cathedral.

Eilidh Owen, Ailsa's daughter has also joined Salisbury Cathedral’s choir, having begun her singing career in Lichfield as a chorister and later as alto choral scholar. Although Salisbury has had female deps across the years, Eilidh is the first full time female lay vicar to join the Salisbury choir.

In term-time, Evensong at Lichfield Cathedral is sung by the choir every day except for Monday and Saturday, and sing Eucharist each Sunday morning.