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choir stopped some time after a new
Provost of the cathedral took office in 1981 and began to phase out the girls. Oxley resigned in 1984 on a point of principle. He said that he had never been forgiven by some other cathedral organists for his actions in admitting girls but he could not see a reason to "bar half of humanity from the benefits and opportunities of cathedral choir membership.". The cathedral choir has only very recently re-admitted girls on an equal footing (2021). The St Cecilia Chorale, formed in 2002 by James Thomas, was the successor to the girls part of the cathedral choir, having erstwhile been under the directorship of Oxley after his resignation from St Edmundsbury, independently from the Cathedral. Before 2002 it operated under the name the St Cecilia Singers. Although girls have been reinstated back into the cathedral choir, Harrison Oxley's forward-thinking and pioneering work with girls' voices, ensuring equality of vocal opportunities, has been quite overlooked by some other English cathedrals, themselves claiming to be the first to have admitted girls.
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A stroke in 2003 meant that he had to re-learn how to play the piano and organ. His daughter, Ruth Oxley, said that he practised regularly, learning virtually "from scratch" after his stroke, and made an unexpected "amazing recovery" in terms of his playing. He died of heart failure on 6 April 2009;
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aged 24. At the time, he was the youngest cathedral organist in the country. He was the first
English cathedral organist to supplement the boys' voices in the cathedral choir with those of girls; he began to use girls' voices as early as the 1960s as a separate choir and to support the boys' voices
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in 1957, aged 24 – the youngest cathedral organist at that time. His conducting of the Bury Bach Choir (with whom he worked until his retirement in 2001) was highly praised. Oxley controversially decided to introduce girls into the then all-male cathedral choir in the early 1970s. The mixed
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in 1954. Oxley was a noted organ recitalist, in
Britain and in the United States, and composed both choral and organ music, his 'Elegy' becoming a standard in the repertoire of 20th century organ music.
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for his results in a piano examination when he was 12, and won the under-20 piano class aged 13. As a pupil at King Edward's, he studied under the school's
Director of Music,
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for large events. The cathedral choir then became a permanent mixed treble line from the early 1970s until 1984.
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190:(to which he won a scholarship in 1946) and aim for a career as a musician. He won a silver medal from the
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People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
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261:"Harrison Oxley: organist and choirmaster"
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439:British male classical organists
414:English male classical composers
409:20th-century classical composers
291:Marais, Kirsty (24 April 2009).
188:King Edward's School, Birmingham
149:, who was appointed Organist of
389:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
135:Thomas Frederick Harrison Oxley
36:Thomas Frederick Harrison Oxley
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419:20th-century English composers
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126:Top of these three plaques in
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223:St Edmundsbury Cathedral
184:Birmingham City Organist
151:St Edmundsbury Cathedral
269:. London. 29 April 2009
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168:metallurgist
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109:Years active
73:(2009-04-06)
71:6 April 2009
61:3 April 1933
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369:2009 deaths
364:1933 births
346:Paul Trepte
358:Categories
340:1958-1985
240:References
176:Birmingham
143:Fred Oxley
102:Pipe organ
98:Instrument
90:Occupation
57:1933-04-03
46:Fred Oxley
32:Birth name
266:The Times
113:1957–2003
84:Classical
302:29 April
273:29 April
164:organist
147:organist
93:Organist
63:England
227:After
182:, the
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304:2009
275:2009
166:and
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68:Died
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