A “gap year” is a term common in the UK, referring to a year off full-time education between high school and university. After an intensive few years of high school, terminating in examinations, many young adults in the UK opt to spend a year abroad, immersing themselves in new places and cultures. Many of these students already have a deferred place at a university, but some embark on a year abroad to help discern their next step in life.
With a new academic year underway, the cathedral music staff are delighted to be welcoming three new gap year scholars from the UK: Annabel Shipley, Marianne Robinson and Oriel Chapman.
Annabel is from Salisbury, England and was a chorister at the cathedral there. She also plays violin and saxophone. Annabel will be spending most of her days in the Cathedral School, where she is also an intern educational assistant. She will serve as a role model for the young choristers and will also work with the school’s string ensemble and band.
Marianne is from Canterbury and plays the organ and sings. Oriel comes from the south-west coast of England and also plays the organ and sings. Oriel and Marianne will be alternating Sunday morning playing duties at St Mary’s, Oak Bay (currently without a music director). They will hone their skills in parish music-making and will have access to the organ for practice. Over the course of the year, as they grow in confidence, they will increasingly be heard on the cathedral organ, accompanying hymns and anthems and playing voluntaries.
All three gap year students are in Victoria to serve, grow and develop their skills as professional church musicians, in addition to experiencing life in a new country. Primary to all their roles is full participation in the cathedral choir. The two organists will also be doing lots of organ practice, with the goal of making university applications or sitting exams.
All three are excited to be in Victoria. Annabel looks forward to trying “everything that comes my way, even if that means learning to ski!” Marianne is “really looking forward to experience living in another country, meeting new friends and making music with everyone.” And Oriel is “so excited to join the warm and enthusiastic community of Christ Church Cathedral” and make some “beautiful music.”
Christ Church Cathedral has been offering a gap year choral scholarship, coupled with work as an assistant in the Cathedral School, since 2021. The first gap year student, a former chorister at Christ Church, Oxford, contacted the cathedral with the idea of coming over to Victoria for a year, and the program carried on from there. Since then, this choral exchange program has fostered the professional development of the five people who have taken part in it, building relationships within the local community and across the world.
“The presence of these three eighteen-year-olds who come to us already with a formation in church, cathedral and cathedral school life, brings a wealth of value to our common life as we continue to realize our vision of becoming an ‘Anglican centre for spirituality, learning, culture, heritage and community for these Islands and Inlets,’” says Donald Hunt, director of music at the cathedral.
