<\/p>\n
A 10-year-old boy from Yorkshire has become the only child from the north of England to join the world famous choir of Westminster Abbey this year.<\/p>\n
Henry Burr’s mother, Gemma Ryder-Burr, from Ripon, said she had decided to send a video of him singing to the abbey’s Master of Choristers “on an impulse” and he was so impressed that Henry was immediately invited to audition.<\/p>\n
Andrew Nethsingha, organist and Master of the Choristers, said as well as the audition, Henry gave an “excellent” interview with the headteacher of the boarding school attached to the abbey.<\/p>\n
Mrs Ryder-Burr said: “I don’t think it has hit Henry how momentous this is for him and the opportunities it will bring.”<\/p>\n
The choir, comprising of 30 choristers and 12 adult singers, performs at royal, state and national occasions.<\/p>\n
As well as taking part in big events, the choristers also sing evensong every night at Westminster Abbey and their performances are broadcast all over the world.<\/p>\n
After the initial audition, Henry had to take tests in English and maths, have a day of lessons at the abbey’s school and stay overnight to experience chorister life.<\/p>\n
Mrs Ryder-Burr said: “It’s wonderful that somebody representing Yorkshire is now going to be singing in the abbey.<\/p>\n
“I hope it shows it is possible for children who live a bit further away from London and who thought that something like this wasn’t available to them or something they could aspire to.”<\/p>\n
The boys in the choir are aged between eight and 13, and the school attached to the abbey is the only Anglican school in the world which solely educates choristers.<\/p>\n
While the school does not disclose how many boys audition every year, it said the process was “highly competitive”, with “only a few” choristers being accepted.<\/p>\n
Mr Nethsingha said pupils were supported to learn two musical instruments in addition to their singing, and bursaries of up to 100% of fees were available to help singers from all backgrounds.<\/p>\n
Mrs Ryder-Burr, who has three other sons, said Henry had always been “flamboyant” and had showed promise as a singer since the age of three.<\/p>\n
He joined Ripon Cathedral Choir when he was seven and “loved every aspect of it”, she said.<\/p>\n
“It wasn’t just the music, it was the history of the pieces of music, the composers who had written them – even down to where the composers lived and what country they were from”, Mrs Ryder-Burr explained.<\/p>\n
She also said that choral music had increased Henry’s interest in English, history, geography and “massively improved” his reading.<\/p>\n
“The house is quiet without Henry – we miss his singing,” she added.<\/p>\n
“But this is going to open up so many doors for him in the future.”<\/p>\n
Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, catch up with the latest episode of Look North<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A 10-year-old boy from Yorkshire has become the only child from the north of England to join the world famous choir of Westminster Abbey this year. Henry Burr’s mother, Gemma Ryder-Burr, from Ripon, said she had decided to send a video of him singing to the abbey’s Master of Choristers “on an impulse” and he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2021436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[371574,371572,371575,371570,371573,371571],"class_list":["post-2021435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-andrew-nethsingha","tag-gemma-ryder-burr","tag-helen-tabor-photography","tag-henry-burr","tag-ripon-cathedral","tag-westminster-abbey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Boy-10-only-northerner-chosen-for-famous-choir.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2021435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2021435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2021435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2021435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Related internet links<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n