We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new Festival of Faith and Music, brought to you by the Church Times in association with the RSCM. The event will be held in York from 26 to 28 April, 2024. There will be an exciting and engaging range of speakers, discussions and workshops, including a keynote speech by the Archbishop of York, and special services held in York Minster. This event is for clergy, music leaders, people involved in church music, and those with a general interest in sacred music. It will be a source of celebration, inspiration, encouragement, support and resource. Discounts will be available to RSCM members. Tickets go on sale from early October. Put the date in your diary now!

We are excited to announce the launch of Voice for Life Digital. This is a new and enhanced version of the RSCM’s vocal training scheme for choristers and singers of all ages. The system allows choir members to progress with minimized input from the choir trainer. Supporting the development of singers has never been easier!

It is available now, with a substantial discount for Group Memberships. To find out more and get started, click the button below.

The Church Choir Award, in partnership with the Cathedral Music Trust (CMT), recognizes outstanding music making in places of worship across the UK. The award is designed to support choirs that sing less frequently than those usually supported by the Cathedral Music Trust’s main grant programme.

This year’s grants, which totalled £30,000, support a range of initiatives, including provision for changing voices, choral scholarships and outreach work in schools and communities across Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions. Alongside financial support from CMT, all seven choirs below will also benefit from a year’s group membership of the RSCM and access to our ground-breaking Voice for Life Digital resources.

To read more about the awards and to see a list of this year’s winners, click the button below. 

The new Institute of Sacred Music (ISMO) is offering a series of free seminars to be held in person at St Stephen's House, Oxford, and online via Zoom.  

The first seminar will take place on Tuesday 10 October, with subsequent seminars taking place every Tuesday for the following seven weeks. All meetings will take place at 7.30pm. As part of the RSCM's collaboration with the ISMO, several of the lectures will be given by RSCM staff and associates. 

The first seminar is titled, 'Christian Worship and Human Community: challenges and opportunities', and will be given by the Revd Dr Matthew Salisbury. Click the button below for a full list of seminar topics. To book or for more details, email [email protected]

Earlier in the year Professor Jeremy Dibble, leading Stainer expert and editor of the RSCM’s new critical edition of this much-loved work, gave a fascinating talk on the work itself. As well as examining the history, content and structure of the work, Professor Dibble has attempted to sum up its extraordinary and enduring popularity. An hour-long recording is now available to view online for £10.00. To find out more and to buy click the button below. To view sample pages from The Crucifixion, New Critical Edition by Jeremy Dibble, or to buy a copy click here. 

We all appreciate the hard work and dedication of our choristers, of all ages, and their commitment to enhancing worship through singing. As well as learning musical skills, being part of a church choir encourages and develops many other life skills, such as self-discipline and teamwork.

To mark the occasion, you could use our International Chorister Day prayer; acknowledge your choristers, past and present, in your services; ask some of your choristers about what it means to them to be in the choir; ask the congregation what your choristers’ singing means to them.  

Do join us on Sunday 8 October, and flood social media with photographs and news of your celebrations. Remember to use the hashtag #InternationalChoristerDay. Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter) posts will appear on the social media wall on our website here. We encourage choristers to share their experiences with us through a dedicated webpage by clicking here. Your stories will be added to the collection available on the website, and excerpts may also be used on our social media channels.

We are recruiting! Could you be our next Hymnpact! Project Manager? If you have what it takes to build on the fantastic work done in the first year of the project, then we want to hear from you. Applications are open now for this full-time, grant-funded role. Click the button below for more information.