2013 season starts in Glasgow

The first event for RSCM Scottish Voices in 2013 is on Saturday 2nd February in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, 300 Great Western Road, Glasgow, where at 4.30pm we shall be singing a Choral Mass for Candlemas.

The Mass setting will be Communion Service in F Major by Harold E Darke, and anthems will include Exsultate Justi by Ludovica da Viadana, Alleluia - Senex Puerum by William Byrd, and Presentation of Christ in the temple by Johannes Eccard.

This kickstarts our 2013 season, and it's followed a few weeks later by a first visit to St Andrews, where we shall be singing in Holy Trinity Parish Church at 4pm on Saturday 9th March.

Choir member receives honour

MANY congratulations to Pat Lynch, Secretary of RSCM Scotland who also happens to sing alto with RSCM Scottish Voices, and to Matthew Beetschen, Chair of RSCM Scotland, who are each to be awarded the honour of Associate of the Royal School of Church Music (ARSCM) at the RSCM celebration Day service on 25th May 2013 in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh, a service at which our choir will be singing.

Well done to both of them!

The full press release on the RSCM Website relating to the 2013 honours is as follows:

Two well-known church musicians are among those to receive honorary awards from the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) next year. Lindsay Gray and Gordon Appleton, who both worked for the RSCM, are to receive Fellowships (FRSCM). Other recipients include cathedral organists from Scotland, New Zealand and South Africa. The main awards will be presented at a special service in St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh on 25th May 2013.

Honorary awards are conferred by the RSCM Council for outstanding contributions to church music, and range from Fellowship (FRSCM) and Associateship (ARSCM) to Honorary Membership and Certificate of Special Service. Nominations are received from RSCM volunteers all over the world.

The RSCM has the power to confer awards and diplomas - Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (FRSCM) is awarded for achievements in church music and/or liturgy of international significance, or for exceptional musical and/or liturgical work within the RSCM. Associate of the Royal School of Church Music (ARSCM) is awarded for achievements in church music and/or liturgy of national significance, or for important musical and/or liturgical work within the RSCM. Honorary member of the RSCM (HonRSCM) is awarded for exceptional or very significant work that has contributed to the cause of church music and/or liturgy at international or national levels, or within the RSCM, but which is not primarily musical or liturgical. Certificate of Special Service is given for significant administrative work as a voluntary officer or member of staff within the RSCM; or an award for a significant contribution to church music and/or liturgy at a local level.

Two Fellowships (FRSCM) are being awarded in 2013; Lindsay Gray (from Cardiff) was Director of RSCM from 2008 until 2012. Before that he was Headmaster of Llandaff Cathedral School, where he founded and directed the cathedral girls’ choir. Lindsay is described by the RSCM Council as an outstanding director, and has raised the profile of the RSCM nationally and internationally. Gordon Appleton (from Ripon) worked for the RSCM for nineteen years in several senior posts, including regional director and adviser in the north of England. He also directed RSCM Voices North, and played a key role in the development of church music in Australia, South Africa and Europe.

Those receiving Associateships (ARSCM) include two from Scotland. Matthew Beetschen has been Director of Music and Organist at Dunblane Cathedral since 1992, where he has built up a large voluntary choir. Pat Lynch has served as Secretary of RSCM Scotland, and has provided training and worship resources for the Scottish Episcopal Church. David Iliff is being honoured for outstanding editorial work on RSCM publications including photocopiable choral resources such as The Carol Book and Songs, Psalms & Spirituals. David has recently retired as Director of Music at Malvern Priory.

Barry Williams who advises the RSCM on legal and contractual issues, and relationships between clergy and musicians, is to be made an Honorary Member of the RSCM (HonRSCM).

Commenting on the 2013 Awards, Andrew Reid, Director of the RSCM says, “There are so many people who give of their time and talents to sustain music in worship that it would be impossible to recognise them all. Nevertheless, it is a great privilege for the RSCM to celebrate these particular musicians whose dedication to music in their communities and spheres of influence has profoundly affected the worship of others.”

Awards will be presented at a special Celebration Day service in St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh on Saturday 25th May 2013. "We always enjoy Celebration Day each year,” says Lord Brian Gill, Chairman of the RSCM Council and Scotland’s most senior judge. “It is our opportunity publicly to honour those whose unselfish efforts have advanced the work of the RSCM, both at home and abroad. I am looking forward to welcoming everyone to Scotland!”

The full 2013 list of those to receive Honorary Awards from the Royal School of Church Music is as follows:

Fellows of the RSCM (FRSCM)

Gordon Appleton has given outstanding service to the RSCM and to church music over more than 30 years, most recently as Director of Voluntary Networks and Regional Music Adviser for the North of England. Gordon has also directed RSCM Voices North with distinction, led RSCM courses and played a key role in the development of church music in Australia, South Africa and Europe.

Lindsay Gray has been an outstanding Director of the RSCM. From a significant career in education he has maintained a passionate commitment to nurturing the musical abilities of young people, and has sought to ensure the future of church music by training the next generation of musicians. He has raised the profile of the RSCM nationally and internationally, worked hard to invigorate the network of volunteers and has been an excellent leader and motivator.

Associates of the RSCM (ARSCM)

Matthew Beetschen has been Director of Music and Organist at Dunblane Cathedral since 1992. As an organist he is a superb recitalist, advocate and teacher. As a choir trainer he has built up a large voluntary cathedral choir especially concentrating on musical training of boys and girls. Matthew has been Chairman of RSCM Scotland for eight years.

Malcolm Chalmers is Headmaster of St Martin’s Preparatory School in Johannesburg and Master of Music at St Boniface, Germiston, South Africa. He has served as Chairman of the Northern Branch of the RSCM in South Africa for five years, and has initiated youth choral programmes, singing festivals and three national Summer Schools.

David Iliff has done outstanding editorial and type-setting work on the RSCM’s photocopiable resources The Carol Book, The Carol Book Supplement, Season by Season, and Songs, Psalms & Spirituals. David has recently retired as Director of Music at Malvern Priory, concluding a 50-year career directing music in churches.

Timothy Lees has been an outstanding music director and organist at the Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and an invaluable member of the RSCM Eastern Cape Branch. Timothy was Royal Organist for the Sultan of Oman 1990–2001 and has been Director of Music in several schools in the UK.

Pat Lynch has made an outstanding contribution to church music in Scotland over many years, particularly to the Scottish Episcopal Church, providing resources for worship and cantor training. She has served as secretary of the RSCM Scotland Committee from 2005 to 2012, running courses and training days as well as handling administration.

Michael McConnell has given 50 years’ service to church music at St Joseph’s Cathedral Dunedin, NZ. Michael was a member of the RSCM Otago & Southland Branch committee for 30 years and in 1991 was appointed a Special Commissioner for the RSCM. He has contributed to RSCM Summer Schools and helped organize and lead RSCM festival services.

Dr June Nixon is known internationally as an organist, choir trainer and composer. In 2013 she will complete 40 years’ service as Organist and Director of Music at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, Australia.

Honorary Member of the RSCM (HonRSCM)

Barry Williams has advised the RSCM for over 20 years on legal questions, in particular relating to contracts and relationships between clergy, PCCs and musicians. He has also led RSCM workshops on these topics and co-authored with Robert Leach a helpful book Everything Else an Organist Should Know.

Certificate of Special Service

These are awarded at local events to those who have given outstanding service to their Branch or Area:

Nigel Bates, Oxford Area
Ken Diffey, Ely Area
Richard Hill, Northumbria Area
Michael Jones, Liverpool Area
Nigel Perona-Wright, Guildford Area
Paul Rose, Peterborough & Northampton Area
Derek Sadler, Liverpool Area
Marjorie Simmance, Lincoln Area
Hilary Spurgeon, Isle of Wight District
Barbara Stout, RSCM South Africa, Eastern Cape Branch
Brian Watson, RSCM Australia, NSW Branch
Ada Wrightson, Lincoln Area

Hadley Court Singers job vacancy

One of our choir members, who sings in the choir concerned, has asked that the following job advert is placed here, and we're happy to oblige.  Contact them through their website if interested or for further information.


WANTED: MUSICAL DIRECTOR, HADLEY COURT SINGERS, HADDINGTON, EAST LOTHIAN

The Hadley Court Singers is an SATB choir of around 35 to 40 singers based in Haddington, East Lothian. We perform regularly three times a year and in the past have sung at special events throughout Scotland. Although presently non-auditioning we can sing to a high standard, and enjoy exploring a wide range of musical styles from early classical to more challenging modern works. 

Our present Musical Director, Simon Nieminski, is, sadly, leaving us at the end of 2012 after 8 1/2 years of directing the choir. We are looking for someone willing to make a long term commitment to Hadley Court Singers and take us forward with energy, enthusiasm and originality of approach!

Visit to Dumfries

At 4pm on Saturday 10th November 2012 RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing in St John's Episcopal Church, Lovers' Walk, Dumfries, directed by our Assistant Musical Director Richard Walmsley.

The service of Choral Evensong, the day before Remembrance Sunday, will have the theme of remembrance running through it, and the music will be:

Introit: Cantique de Jean Racine (Gabriel Fauré)
Responses: Richard Shephard
Psalm: 121 (Henry Walford Davies)
Canticles: Charles Villiers Stanford in C
Anthem: Greater Love hath no man (John Ireland)
Blessing: Irish Blessing (Bob Chilcott)

All are welcome to attend the service, which promises to be very moving.

This first trip to Dumfries will be the furthest south in Scotland we've yet visited, and with a trip to Inverness scheduled for 2013 our ongoing aim to further push the geographic scope of RSCM Scottish Voices is well in hand.

Audition success

Congratulations to the three new members of RSCM Scottish Voices, one alto and two basses, who were successful at our audition day yesterday and who will be joining us in 2013.

Welcome to the choir Lynne from Dollar, John from Elgin and Chris from Dunblane!

Although we have no further audition days planned at the moment, we do keep a list of interested singers who we may invite for audition as and when required, so if you'd like an application form or just a bit more information, as long as you're 18 or older, live in Scotland, and have experience in church choral singing please contact the administrator using the details in the sidebar on the right.  You too could be part of this exciting national choir.

Hadley Court Singers

There's an audition day for prospective new members of RSCM Scottish Voices on Saturday 22nd September and it isn't too late to apply to join - just contact the administrator using the details in the sidebar on the right.

In the meantime though, if you're interested in joining a choir in Haddington then the Hadley Court Singers, which is conducted by the very talented Simon Nieminski and in which one of our members sings, could well be the very one for you, and they're having an open evening on Wednesday 19th September 2012 from 7.30pm until 9.30pm in Holy Trinity Church in Haddington. 

Contact their membership secretary via their website which is at www.hadleycourtsingers.co.uk

Come and join us

We're having an audition day on Saturday 22nd September 2012 for prospective new choir members who are interested in filling one of the limited numbers of vacancies we currently have.

For further information and to apply contact the administrator by email, using the details in the sidebar on the right, but don't forget to have a read through the criteria for membership, especially age and residence.

2013 season announced!

The next time you can hear us sing is on November 10th 2012 in St John's Episcopal Church in Dumfries when we bring our 2012 season to a close with a Remembrance themed Choral Evensong, but hot off the press this weekend the 2013 season for RSCM Scottish Voices has now been announced.

We start the year on Saturday February 2nd in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, home church of our Musical Director Frikki Walker and several of our choir, where we shall be taking part in a Choral Mass for Candlemas at 4.30pm.

On Saturday 9th March we will be making a first visit to the university town of St Andrews, where we will be singing Choral Evensong in Holy Trinity Parish Church, which in the past has been host to concerts by The Sixteen and The Tallis Scholars.

Saturday 27th April sees us helping celebrate the 850th anniversary year of the founding of Paisley Abbey, with our first visit to sing in that historic building.

In June we will be singing somewhere, but the exact date and the venue is still in negotiation, so watch this space!

Friday August 2nd to Sunday August 4th* will be our annual residential rehearsal weekend, venue to be decided but it features no public performance so the finer details may well not be publicised here.
* please note this is a date change from that first posted here (updated 13/10/2012)

Our stretching of the Scottish geographic boundaries continues on Saturday 14th September when we pay a first visit to sing Choral Evensong in St Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral in Inverness.

As well as the 850th anniversary of Paisley Abbey, the year 2013 is the centenary of the Carnegie Trust undertaking the first ever publishing of Tudor Church Music, and we're delighted to be able to help them celebrate this auspicious occasion by singing Tudor music for them on Saturday 12th October.  The venue is still to be finalised, but we're hopeful it'll involve singing in a suitably old abbey, cathedral or church.

Our 2013 season comes to a close with a return visit to the outstanding acoustic of St Aloysius' RC Church in Glasgow, where although the details of the service have still to be discussed we hope to take part in their regular Vigil Mass on Saturday 23rd November.

Full details, including music lists of all of the above will be announced here as and when information becomes available, and on a rolling basis our Future Services and Events page will be updated.

Strathallan residential weekend 2012

This evening members of RSCM Scottish Voices will gather from all over the country and assemble in the delightful setting of Strathallan School in rural Perthshire to take part in the 2012 annual residential rehearsal weekend.

There will be loads of good music (I know, I've seen the secret list!), good friends, good fun, good laughs, and, naturally, good and extended partying!

The 2013 season will be announced to the choir over the weekend, and posted here on Sunday afternoon, so watch this space.

We hope to organise an audition day in the autumn for prospective new members hoping to join us in 2013.  Contact the administrator using the email address in the sidebar to the right if you're interested, or you want to find out more.  But read the blurb on the right first, there are some criteria which need fulfilled by members (age, residence etc).

Sun Shine Songs

On Friday 17th August, one of the members of RSCM Scottish Voices will be taking part in a free concert entitled Sun Shine Songs in St Baldred's Church in North Berwick, with donations taken on the door for Leuchie House and St Baldred's Church.

It's a concert featuring Chick Lyall, Phil Grieve, Wesley Bradd and Sadie Maskery who together make up the group Eyebroughty, and it's going to be a mixture of jazz, folk and classic summer songs with special guests and buck's fizz (the drink, not the group!).

Not only will it be marvellous, it's for a good cause, so why not take a chance and go along if you're in the area.

New RSCM Director appointed

Copyright © The Royal School of Church Music

The Council of the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) has appointed Andrew Reid (pictured), currently Director of Music at Peterborough Cathedral, to be the next Director in succession to Lindsay Gray, who is leaving the RSCM this autumn. A start date has yet to be agreed.

Andrew Reid has been Director of Music at Peterborough Cathedral since 2004 and before that he served in a number of assistant organist posts including both Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral.

Originally from Sevenoaks in Kent, he studied at Cambridge University where he held organ scholarships at St Catharine’s and Robinson Colleges, studying the instrument with Peter Hurford and David Sanger. In 1994 he performed the complete works of JS Bach in one twenty-five hour recital. As Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral from 1996, and four years later as Sub Organist of Westminster Abbey, he accompanied both resident choirs in recordings, broadcasts and on tour. He also played the organ for occasions of national significance including the funeral of Cardinal Basil Hume and the state funeral of the Queen Mother in Westminster Abbey.  At Peterborough Cathedral, he has directed the Cathedral Choirs of boys, girls and lay clerks in live broadcasts of Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3, has performed with renowned groups such as His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts and Charivari Agréable, toured the Netherlands, Ireland and France, and has given many concerts within the UK.

Andrew Reid is looking forward to the new post. “I am delighted and honoured to be appointed Director of the RSCM. As a parish church chorister I greatly benefited from the work of the RSCM, and its inspirational leadership. I look forward to leading the RSCM forward in its work of inspiring, training and encouraging church musicians.”

Commenting on the appointment, Lord Gill, Chairman of the RSCM Council, who also chaired the appointment panel and is Scotland’s most senior judge, said, “Andrew Reid has been chosen from a strong field of candidates. His experience ranges from choral music at cathedral level to the training and encouragement of amateur musicians and singers in the parish churches, including young people. His vision for the RSCM is imaginative and exciting, and we look forward to a successful directorship. Andrew will build on the foundations laid by our departing director, Lindsay Gray, whose contribution to the RSCM has been immense.”

The Dean of Peterborough, the Very Reverend Charles Taylor, said, “Although Andrew’s departure will be a real loss to the Cathedral community and the Diocese, we congratulate him on his appointment to a post of national and international significance. He will take with him remarkable gifts of musicianship, choir training and teaching as well as a strong sense of vocation, vision and purpose.”

New conductor for our sister choir

The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) has appointed a new choral conductor to take over direction of its training choir for singers in the North of England. Robert Poyser will direct RSCM Voices (North) from September 2012.

Robert is also Director of Music at Beverley Minster, and brings to the choir a wealth of choral directing experience, particularly with children, from his work at Beverley and previously at Chelmsford Cathedral. He takes up the post in September, beginning with Evensong at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral at 3.00pm on Saturday 8th September 2012.

Robert succeeds Gordon Appleton, who retires this summer after a long and successful tenure in which he built the choir up to a strong membership of boys, girls and adults.

RSCM Voices are the Royal School of Church Music’s training choirs of singers drawn from affiliated churches around the country. As part of Voice for Life, the RSCM’s singing training scheme, they seek to build upon the work done in parish choirs. “These choirs provide excellent choral training which explores new and challenging repertory in lots of great venues” says Colin Davey, the Programme Manager of Voice for Life. “The remit of the group is to explore ways of encouraging young people in particular to sing, and to give a rounded experience of different kinds of church music, all the while inspiring them to reach the highest possible standard.”

RSCM Voices (North) has a busy programme of singing engagements arranged throughout the region, from Newcastle to Peterborough and from Carlisle to Liverpool. Entry is by audition and further details can be found at the RSCM website, www.rscm.com

RSCM Music Sunday 2012

In St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow on Sunday 24th June 2012 members of RSCM Scottish Voices will be joining with other choirs including the Cathedral Choir itself to celebrate RSCM Music Sunday in a repeat of the glorious Choral Evensong of last year's event, complete with orchestral arrangements of classic cathedral repertoire!

The service will take place at 6.30pm, and the music will include:

• I was glad (Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
• Responses: Bernard Rose
• The Lord is my shepherd (Howard Goodall)
• The splendour of the House of God (John Bell)
• Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in A (Sir Charles Villiers Stanford)
• Greater love hath no man (Sir John Ireland)
• All people that on earth do dwell (Ralph Vaughan Williams)

The following is taken from the RSCM Website:
 
What is Music Sunday?
RSCM Music Sunday is a celebration of the music and musicianship that are a vital and beloved part of church life.  Music Sunday is a salute in words and music to the creativity, discipline, effort, and dedication of thousands upon thousands of people – young and old, professional and amateur, singer and instrumentalist, administrator and practitioner – most of them working without expectation of recognition but who nonetheless deserve our awareness and our thanks.  Music Sunday can be the occasion when you award RSCM medals, admit choristers into your choir, recognise a change in the status of choristers or greet a new organist or music director. 

What is The 50:50 Campaign?
Music Sunday events raise funds for choirs, music libraries, or whatever the financial need may be; the RSCM will use its half of the proceeds to support its work of training and supporting church musicians everywhere. While the amount raised locally may be modest, the events themselves raise awareness of the key role of music in worship. The £100,000 that the RSCM could raise in new funds will be transformative for church music and musicians.

RSCM Scotland Triennial Festival 2012

On Saturday 16th June 2012 at 5pm RSCM Scottish Voices will be taking part in the RSCM Scotland Triennial Festival in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, directed by Duncan Ferguson, Master of the Music at the cathedral.

Music will include:

• I give to you a new commandment (Peter Nardone)
• Jubilate (John Harper)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B flat (Sir John Stainer)
• As water to the thirsty (T. Brian Coleman - arr John Barnard)
• Let all the world (Ralph Vaughan Williams)
• I was glad (Sir C Hubert H Parry)
• An Irish Blessing (Elizabeth Ann Spencer)

In addition to the above music which will be performed by all the choirs present, during the service RSCM Scottish Voices will sing the hauntingly beautiful Tree of Life, the tune of which was written by Marty Haugen with this choral arrangement by Frikki Walker.

Chapter House Singers & Glasgow Chamber Choir

RSCM Scottish Voices is made up of singers from all over Scotland who are members of other choirs too.

In the spirit of mutual cooperation we're very happy to include details of the activities of some of those choirs here, so below you will see posters for two forthcoming ones, firstly for The Chapter House Singers from Edinburgh who will be singing Faure's Requiem, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and Janacek's Lord's Prayer in St Mary's Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh on Saturday 2nd June, and secondly for Glasgow Chamber Choir who will be performing a programme of Baltic music from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Germany, on Saturday 9th June at 7.30pm in Hyndland Parish Church, Glasgow, and on Sunday 10th June at 3pm in St John's Episcopal Church, Princes St, Edinburgh.

Chapter House Singers

Glasgow Chamber Choir

Dunfermline Abbey

On Saturday 19th May 2012 at the later than usual time of 5pm RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing Choral Evensong in the historic surroundings of Dunfermline Abbey, directed by Frikki Walker and accompanied by the Abbey Organist and Master of the Music Dr. Norman Mitchell.

The music will be:

• Introit: Ascendit Deus (Peter Philips)
• Responses: Clucas
• Canticles: Herbert Sumsion in G
• Anthem: Faire is the Heaven (William Harris)
• Final Responses: Edward Naylor

Dunfermline Abbey dates back to 800 AD, and it's a fine building, well worth a visit even at times when we're not singing there!

RSCM Scottish Voices crosses Hadrian's Wall

York Minster

At the weekend members of RSCM Scottish Voices travelled over the border to make a foray into England to sing for the first time as a choir.  Well, 20 of us did.  Numbers were limited because we were joining with the other three, longer established, RSCM Voices choirs who regularly get together every couple of years or so to sing a big Choral Evensong in a Cathedral somewhere in England, in this instance it was York Minster.  Simply because of logistics not everyone in each choir could fit into the space available, big though it is, so spaces were limited to about 20 singers each (a few more than that if the top line were trebles and not adult sopranos) making a choir of something like 104 singers.  So the 20 singers to represent RSCM Scottish Voices were duly chosen by our Musical Director, Frikki Walker, to form a balanced ensemble, and I was lucky enough to be one of those who could go (although being the administrator I'd have gone anyway just to listen and show face even if I hadn't been chosen to sing).

The service was on the bank holiday Monday (May Day) and we all made our own separate ways there, some going down a good few days early to make the most of the trip, some going there and back on the day itself, and many dragging along long-suffering partners with them!  After a most enjoyable circuitous route zigzagging by motorcycle through the borders I arrived in York on the Sunday afternoon just in time to check into the hotel and wander over for the Minster Choir's Choral Evensong when they sang Ayleward Responses (a favourite of mine), Dyson in D Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (standard repertoire but very enjoyable nonetheless) and Ye choirs of new Jerusalem by Stanford (which RSCM Scottish Voices sang the previous week in Old Saint Paul's Church in Edinburgh - and dare I say it our sopranos sounded better in the opening phrase "the paschal victory to hymn in strains of holy joy" at the bit where tradition dictates most choirs squeak out and clip short the top G on the first syllable of the word "victory").  The sound the Minster choir made was magnificent, particularly the men, a glorious rounded luxuriant noise.  Great stuff!

The hotel I and two others were staying in was the Guy Fawkes Inn, straight across from the south west corner of the Minster in High Petergate, and it's built on the site of the building in which Guy Fawkes was born and right next to the church in which he was baptised - St Michael le Belfrey.  It's a Real Ale pub and the beer, food, accommodation and staff were all excellent and to be recommended.  In fact, if you follow the link to the church the photo on Wikipedia of the front of the church (at the time of writing this) shows the Guy Fawkes Inn to its right.

So to the day of the service, and after two of us had a nice long walk together round the city walls doing the touristy bit in the morning we all assembled at 1pm in St William's College, a 15th century Tudor building directly to the east of the Minster.  Once the mundane things like seating arrangements were over we started a fairly short rehearsal under the direction of Gordon Appleton, Director of RSCM Voices North and RSCM Regional Music Adviser for the north of England (well, for the moment he is, since he's about to retire which was partly the reason for this service being on his patch and under his direction).

York Minster and the city walls

After a short'ish break we continued the rehearsal in the Minster but surprisingly and slightly disappointingly to me the decision was taken that we wouldn't robe for this (I always think that robing while rehearsing in choirstalls is to be encouraged), and we got through all the music (although despite it being a long psalm it was actually less than we normally would sing in an RSCM Scottish Voices service simply because there was no Introit).

Another very short break (during which the battle for access to the toilets commenced!) and we were then into the service of Choral Evensong itself.  It takes a lot to pull a choir that size together in such a short space of time, and rather enjoyably pretty much all of the wee odd rough edges of the rehearsal disappeared as the choir produced a very pleasing sound, and Gordon Appleton came into his own with some very animated directing while standing on a box so those furthest from him (that would be me then) had a sporting chance of seeing a beat to follow!  Oh, and the priest singing the responses was none other than Richard Shephard!

Congregationally it was a pretty full Quire (for those reading this who aren't familiar with cathedral architecture and nomenclature that's the name for the part of the building in which we were singing, not a dreadful typo!) and afterwards I didn't quite manage to find and speak to all those I'd have liked to, but I did manage to finally meet Sue Snell, the RSCM's Head of Education, who has always been unfailingly helpful in email correspondence.  It's good to put a face to an email address!

The great and the good then disappeared off to an official function, where I'm given to understand that Lord Gill, Chairman of the RSCM Council, made special mention of RSCM Scottish Voices in his speech, and I'm also told that it had been noticed that RSCM Scottish Voices singers acquitted ourselves admirably!  One comment I got from a VERY experienced church musician who was in the congregation and whose opinion I respect 100% was "all in all a great event".

I'm neither great nor good, so along with most of the Scottish contingent I went across the road to the Guy Fawkes Inn, where we had food and drink and good company well into the night.

As I said at the start of this post, this is the first time we've been invited to one of these events, and it was really nice to be asked.  It was a real shame that we couldn't take everyone in the choir, but that was all out of our hands, however those who were there represented the choir well and I have no doubt we'll be asked again and hopefully might be in a position to take more singers along.

Old Saint Paul's, Edinburgh

Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church on Jeffrey St in Edinburgh (right next to Waverley Station) is the next place you can hear RSCM Scottish Voices sing, on Saturday 28th April at 4pm when we shall be singing Choral Evensong.

The music we will be performing is:

Introit: O sons and daughters (Walford Davies)
Responses: Clucas
Canticles: Murrill in E
Anthem: Ye choirs of new Jerusalem (Stanford)
Final Responses: Naylor

Come along to this fine building and join us in a celebration of Easter!

Enter by the Carubber's Close door.

Perth and Old Saint Paul's

After our successful and very enjoyable recital in the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling yesterday, the next opportunity to hear RSCM Scottish Voices sing is when members join forces with other local choirs to sing Handel's Messiah under the direction of Richard Walmsley in St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral, Perth, on Saturday 31st March 2012.  Further details will be listed here when available.

The next time you can hear us on our own is during Choral Evensong on Saturday 28th April 2012 in Old Saint Paul's Church, Jeffrey St, Edinburgh. The music list will be announced here soon.

Omission from CMQ

The latest edition of the Royal School of Church Music's rather excellent publication Church Music Quarterly (CMQ) with its sister publication The Network, unfortunately contains a couple of errors by omission whereby technology has conspired against publishing details of two of our forthcoming events, a visit to Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Edinburgh on Saturday 28th April, and a visit to Dunfermline Abbey on Saturday 19th May.

Rest assured, despite these visits not being listed in the official RSCM magazine, we WILL be going to each and you just need to check back here for further details like the music lists in due course.