The Chichester Cathedral Choir, like other English Anglican cathedral choirs, provides daily service music for its cathedral home. With centuries of tradition behind it, the choir has also in recent years undertaken a wide range of non-liturgical activities, including barbershop quartet singing. Choral music has been heard in Chichester Cathedral, which looms over the small city of Chichester in South East England, since its origins in the 12th century, and some of the choir-associated structures in the building date back almost that far, although the Victorian era saw extensive renovations. In modern times the choir has consisted of from 14 to 18 boy choristers, from four to six probationers (boy singers in training), and generally six Lay Vicars, adult male professional singers who may also hold other jobs. Choristers are chosen by audition, with voice and musical instincts being more important than previous training, and receive a full education, learning piano and another instrument as well as taking non-musical classes, as boarders at the cathedral's prebendal school. The singers are directed by the cathedral's Organist and Master of the Choristers (since 2014 Charles Harrison, aided by an Assistant Organist and an annually changing Organ Scholar. The choir sings eight services a week: Evensong every day except Wednesday, plus the Mattins (the Morning Prayer) and Eucharist on Sundays. The Chichester Cathedral Choir is notable for the breadth and frequency of its appearances outside cathedral services. These have included annual Christmas appearances with local school choirs at the Chichester Festival Theatre, performances at the annual Chichester Festivities and Southern Cathedrals Festival (serving as a rotating host for the latter with the choirs of Winchester and Salisbury Cathedrals), and tours (12 since 1998) of cities across continental Europe. Unusually among English choirs, the group has, since 1993, maintained its own barbershop harmony ensemble, Close Company, which consists of the adult Lay Vicars; Close Company toured South Africa in 2005 and performed for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Chichester Cathedral Choir has recorded more than 20 albums, dating back to 1976's In Quires and Places. The group has recorded mostly thematic albums of English music for the Priory Records and Signum Classics labels, issuing Lest We Forget on the latter in 2018. ~ James Manheim, Rovi