The Organ Scholarship

Music List | The Choir | The Organ | Organ Scholarship 

The Organ Scholarship would be open to a person of suitable ability (approximately Grade 6 or above Associated Board standard).

Appointment would be made after an audition and an interview with the Organist and Choirmaster, and Rector. The audition would include a prepared accompaniment of the choir.

The scholarship would initially be for the period of one academic year, September to July, but may be renewable at the end of this period.

The scholarship can be terminated at any time by either the Rector or the Organist and Choirmaster, usually, although in extreme cases of mis-conduct not always, preceded by a written warning.

The value of the scholarship would be £500, divided between payment of lessons and purchase of music.

Practice time on the Church organ would be available.

The role of the Organ Scholar would be that of Assistant Organist and he or she would be expected to:

Be present at full choir practices and accompany as required;

Be present at choral Sunday services and play as requested by the Organist and Choirmaster;

Play for Weddings and Funerals as required, for which the scholar would receive the appropriate fee.

It would also be hoped that the scholar would be happy to sing with the choir when not required to play.

If the appointed scholar is not a permanent resident in Canterbury (i.e. a university or college student) then he or she could be excused from duty during holiday periods at Christmas, after the Service of Lessons and Carols usually on the Sunday evening preceding Christmas Eve, and at Easter, after the service of Music and Readings for Passiontide on Palm Sunday evening.

There would be the opportunity of three Sundays leave, given in order to experience and study music in other churches arranged in advance with the Organist and Choirmaster.

The scholar would be entitled to three further weekends of leave, arranged in advance with the Organist and Choirmaster.

There may well be opportunities for a suitable candidate to develop other church musicianship skills during the tenure of the scholarship such as choral conducting, church repertoire and composition, and to play a part in Canterbury Diocesan Royal School of Church Music events.

About Music at St Stephen’s

The music at St Stephen’s church reflects the strong traditions of Anglican Church music, together with the best of the more modern repertoire.

There are two choral services each Sunday sung by a mixed choir of adults and children (currently just under 40 members) and accompanied by organ. Music at the morning Sung Eucharist is usually a choral parish setting of the mass, five hymns (mainly from the New English Hymnal) and an anthem. Choral Evensong is sung weekly, on a rotation of ‘Parish’ evensong, with the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis sung to Anglican chant, Men’s Voices, Cathedral Evensong with fully composed canticles, and Trebles and Women’s voices. Choral repertoire ranges from Plainsong through to new compositions from well-known composers and from those that are more local through our own composition competition.

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The Friends of St Stephen's raise money to help maintain the fabric of the church. More...

St Stephen's Church Choir has around 40 members and sings a wide variety of music at the Sung Eucharist and Choral Evensong each Sunday.  More... (the choir photo has been updated on this page too - or click here for a larger image!)

Listen to the choir singing William Byrd's Ave verum corpus and William Fox's Teach me thy way O Lord

St Stephen's has a ring of eight bells and these are rung regularly before the Sung Eucharist and Choral Evensong on a Sunday, and for Festivals.  The Bell Ringers maintain their own website accessible here...

A number of committees oversee the day to day running of the parish, and more information from some of these committees can be found here...

The Annual Report, prepared for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting is available here...

For full details of the history of St Stephen's, click here...

 

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