40°45′58″N73°58′48″W / 40.76616°N 73.98013°W /40.76616; -73.98013
| Saint Thomas Choir School | |
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| Location | |
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202 West 58th Street , United States | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private, church-affiliatedboarding school |
| Motto | Cantate Domino (Sing unto the Lord) |
| Religious affiliation | Episcopal |
| Established | 1919 (1919) |
| Enrollment | 26 boys (2024-25) |
| Campus | Urban |
| Tuition | $22,000 (2024-25) |
| Website | www |
Saint Thomas Choir School is an all-boysboarding school located inManhattan, New York, dedicated to the education and training of approximately 30choirboys from ages 8 to 14. It is one of three all-boarding, all-boys choral schools in the world (the other two beingWestminster Abbey Choir School in England andEscolania de Montserrat in Spain).
The school is supervised by and receives financial support from the nearbySaint Thomas Church (Episcopal), whose choral ensemble performs music in theAnglican tradition at worship services, while offering a full concert series during the course of the school year. Starting in 2025, the school's educational programs will be operated by theProfessional Children's School, a day school for child actors and performers, although the church will continue to offer music and religious instruction.
In the 2024-25 school year, the school had 26 students and 24 faculty and staff. It resides in a fifteen-story building located at 202 West 58th Street inmidtown Manhattan, one block south ofCentral Park. Since 2005, the school has offered a summer residential Girl Chorister Course.[1]
During the 2023-24 school year, 74% of students were on financial aid, which covered, on average, 74% of tuition.[2]
Saint Thomas Choir School was founded in 1919 by the vestry of Saint Thomas Church at the urging of English-born composerT. Tertius Noble, the church organist since 1913. The school opened on March 3, 1919 in a four-story building at 123West 55th Street.[3] A two-story addition, designed by the architect Thomas A. Bell and completed in 1938, expanded the school north to West 56th Street.[4]
In 1985, the church vestry transferred title to the school's land and building to property developerFisher Brothers, who in return built a new school on a 75 foot (23 m) wide lot at 202 West 58th Street.[5] Execution of the project required demolition of the Elysee Theater, used as a television studio since 1955, and as a theatre or cinema since 1926.[6]
The new building opened in September 1987. Designed by the architecture firmButtrick White & Burtis, the $18 million, 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m2), steel-frame building was clad in red brick, withlimestone trim and gray brick accents, rising six stories before stepping back twenty feet, then rising eight more stories to a gabled roof form containing a small chapel illuminated by a large circular window. The principal feature of the lower facade is a three-story window (suggestive of an "oriel"), framed in buff Indiana limestone with red granite accents.[7]
In March 2024, Saint Thomas Church warned that due to rising costs, it would discontinue operating the school unless it raised $50 million in endowment funds. Although the church had a $138 million endowment, it noted that much of that endowment could not be used for school purposes.[8] Owing to the school's atypically low tuition and large scholarship program (during the 2023-24 school year, approximately 21 of the school's 28 students were on financial aid), tuition revenues accounted for around $250,000[2] of the school's $4 million budget.[8]
In November, the church announced that starting in 2025, it would hand the academic program to theProfessional Children's School, although the church will continue to offer music and religious instruction. The church acknowledged that several teachers and staff would likely be laid off.[9]
Students participate in a liturgical music program while studying academic subjects such as English, science, history, mathematics, Latin, French, music theory, and theology. Students also participate in an athletic program, competing against local private schools in soccer, basketball, and track.
Students are admitted on arolling basis. The school holds auditions three times a year for boys entering the third, fourth, and fifth grades. Third grade students must live close enough to the school to go home every weekend and return on Sunday evening, a requirement waived for fourth and fifth grade students.[10]
The school offers employment to students taking a year off between high school and college. They assist in classroom and sports programs, and help in the preparation of the choristers’ instrumental practice. Most gap students have a choral background and an understanding of the daily routine and needs of a choir school. Acceptance is competitive.
Directed since 2019 byJeremy Filsell, the choir performs regularly with the period instrument ensemble Concert Royal, and with theOrchestra of St. Luke's, as part of its own concertseries. The choir's primary raison d'être, however, is to provide music for five choral services each week at Saint Thomas Church.[8] Whereas the men of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers, the boy choristers are students from the Saint Thomas Choir School.[11]
In addition to annual performances of Handel'sMessiah, concerts at Saint Thomas Church have includedrequiems byFauré,Brahms,Mozart,Duruflé, andHowells; Bach'sPassions and Mass in B Minor; theMonteverdiVespers of 1610; aHenry Purcell anniversary concert;RachmaninoffVespers; the U.S.premiere ofJohn Tavener'sMass; a concert of American composers featuring works byLeonard Bernstein andAaron Copland; a composition by Saint Thomas chorister Daniel Castellanos; the world premiere of ScottEyerly'sSpires; and a concert of works byBenjamin Britten.
The choir has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe, performing at Westminster Abbey andSt. Paul's Cathedral in London;Kings College, Cambridge;Windsor Castle; Edinburgh;St. Albans; and at theAldeburgh Festival. In 2004, the choir toured Italy and performed at aPapal Mass at theVatican. In 2007, the choir performed Bach'sSaint Matthew Passion for the opening concert of the Mexico Festival in Mexico City as well as at Saint Thomas Church. In February 2012, the boys of the choir traveled to Germany to give the premiere ofLera Auerbach'sDresden Requiem with theDresden Staatskapelle at theFrauenkirche and at theSemperoper. Later in 2012, the choir performed in theThomaskirche at theBachfest Leipzig, a highlight of their tour to Germany and Copenhagen.