Royal links

Today we visited beautiful Royal Deeside and sang unaccompanied Choral Evensong in St Margaret's former Episcopal Church in Braemar.

Braemar is just a few miles along the road from Balmoral Castle, Scottish home of Her Majesty the Queen who is the Royal Patron of the Royal School of Church Music, and it didn't seem right for an RSCM choir to be singing almost on her doorstep without letting her know, so a while back our administrator sent off a letter to Buckingham Palace advising Her Majesty of our visit, and inviting her to the service should she be in the area.

The response, from The Chief Clerk to The Queen, was that The Queen's engagements are planned A LONG time in advance and therefore regrettably she was unable to attend.  In the envelope though, in addition to the reply from The Chief Clerk, was a letter from Her Majesty herself, containing congratulations to all involved in the regeneration of St Margaret's Church, and best wishes to the choir!

Her Majesty's letter was reproduced in the Orders of Service today, and a scan is reproduced below.

Royal Deeside

Our next choral outing is a visit to Royal Deeside where directed by Frikki Walker we shall be singing unaccompanied Choral Evensong at 4pm on Saturday 9th May 2015 in St Margaret's former Episcopal Church in the beautiful town of Braemar.

Last used for regular worship in 1997, St Margaret’s was built by the prominent Scottish architect Sir John Ninian Comper between 1899 and 1907 and ceased to be an Episcopal Church in 2013 when it was transferred into the care of the Scottish Redundant Churches Trust since when it has been developing into an arts and performance venue.

We see our visit to sing Choral Evensong as harking back to its illustrious past while firmly looking to what the future holds for this architecturally significant building set in beautiful Royal Deeside and less than 10 miles from Balmoral, home of Her Majesty the Queen, Royal Patron of the RSCM.

Introit:         Cantate Domino (Pitoni)
Responses:   Richard Ayleward
Psalms:        47 & 48 (chants by James Turle & Stanley Vann)
Canticles:    Magnificat Primi Toni (Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina)
                     Nunc Dimittis (Thomas Luis da Victoria)
Anthem:      Praise our Lord (William Byrd)

2015 season announced

The dates and venues for our 2015 season have just been announced to the choir at our residential rehearsal weekend at Stirling University, so the wider world can now know!

All of our future events are listed below, including those still to come in the second half of our 2014 season:

Saturday 6th September 2014
Choral Evensong at 4pm
St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, High St, Dundee

Saturday 4th October 2014
Choral Evensong at 4pm
St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh

Saturday 1st November 2014
Choral Evensong at 4pm
St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral, Perth


Saturday 17th January 2015
Epiphany Carol Service by Candlelight at 4pm
Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh

Saturday 7th March 2015
Choral Evensong at 4pm
St Mary's Parish Church, Haddington

Saturday 9th May 2015
Choral Evensong at 4pm
St Margaret's former Episcopal Church, Braemar, Royal Deeside

Having been recently saved from a perilous condition, St Margaret's is now becoming the base for all sorts of musical events in the beautiful village of Braemar which is just along from Balmoral Castle, the home of Her Majesty the Queen (Royal Patron of the Royal School of Church Music). Although not operating as a church now, the team looking after the building agree with us that this would be a nice opportunity to hark back to former times whilst still firmly looking forward to what the future holds for the building.

Saturday 6th June 2015
RSCM Scotland Triennial Festival
Directed by Frikki Walker, accompanied by Richard Walmsley
St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow

Friday 7th to Sunday 9th August 2015
Annual residential rehearsal weekend
This does not involve any public performance or access

Saturday 5th September 2015
Choral Evensong at 4pm
St John's Episcopal Cathedral, Oban

This will be a first visit to Oban for the choir, and we're very much looking forward to visiting this glorious part of Scotland where the RSCM is very much supported.

Saturday 3rd October 2015
Choral Evensong at 4pm
St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral, Perth
*NB for reasons outwith our control this is a different venue to that originally advertised here

Saturday 14th November 2015
Choral Evensong at 4pm
Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh

This will be a joint service with Young Scottish Voices