A court in Berlin is to decide on Friday whether traditional all-male cathedral choirs are obliged to accept female singers under gender discrimination laws.

The family of a nine-year-old girl is suing the city’s oldest choir for discrimination after it rejected her application for an audition.

The case comes after Lesley Garrett, the British soprano, described all-male choirs as a “throwback to a bygone era” and called for the choir of King’s College, Cambridge to accept girls.

The State and Cathedral Choir of Berlin was founded in 1465 by Prince-Elector Frederick II of Brandenburg, and performs regularly in Berlin cathedral and around Europe. It has never admitted women.

The family of the nine-year-old girl argue that because the choir receives public funding her rejection contravenes German equal opportunity laws.

The choir is today part of Berlin’s publicly funded University of the Arts (UdK) and provides training to 250 choirboys and 75 young men under the age of 25.

The choir has not commented while the case is ongoing, but its lawyers have told the court the girl was not rejected because of her gender.