King's College choir conductor says choristers don't want to give up their weekends to practise

King's College choir finds it harder to recruit choristers as parents want family time at weekends, the outgoing conductor has said.

Stephen Cleobury spent 37 years at the helm of the Cambridge choir - one of the most famous in the world.

Now the married father-of-two has spoken out about the difficulties in getting choristers to dedicate their time to singing at weekends.

He says persuading parents and their children to commit to attending services is challenging because families often want to spend their days off together.

"When I was first doing this sort of thing, 40 to 50 years ago, it would be quite common to audition a youngster who was already singing in a local church choir. It’s much more rare today," Mr Cleobury, 70, told Bachtrack.

"It’s a commitment for families and parents. When we’re assessing the choristers, we have to make sure that every party is comfortable with the idea, because the parents are increasingly likely to be attending services as often as they can.

"If you look at the way a family might spend time at the weekend, there’s much more in the way of leisure activity and people wanting to go away, so there’s a question of people understanding what the commitment is and being prepared to make it."

The Choir of King's College, Cambridge was founded in the fifteenth century and is best known for singing A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, the Christmas Eve service that the BBC has broadcast since 1928.

Mr Cleobury has worked with leading soloists, singers, instrumentalists and orchestras - including the Academy of Ancient Music , the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Philharmonia, Britten Sinfonia, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the distinguished ensemble Endymion.

The acclaimed conductor, who was awarded a CBE for services to music in 2009, is President of the Friends of Cathedral Music and of the Herbert Howells Society, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an honorary fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians, and a member of the Musicians' Company.

He was succeeded as musical director at King's College last year by Daniel Hyde, who had been Director of Music at St Thomas Church in New York since 2016.

Mr Cleobury conducted for the final time at King's College chapel on Christmas Eve.