We invite you to join our Advent Calendar for 2019. Send us an audio or video recording of your choir or music group singing a piece of music for Advent or Christmas this December. It shouldn’t be a difficult thing to do: you will be rehearsing and performing this music anyway. It is up to you whether you choose to record a performance in a rehearsal, or whether you record part of the service. We will leave it up to you to decide what is appropriate. You can make remarkably good recordings using a smartphone, or of course using something more sophisticated. We do ask, however, that it’s a live performance rather than something that has been edited.

We will listen to all the submitted recordings and compile a varied selection of 24, from churches and choirs and music groups large and small, covering all sorts of styles. The mystery selections will appear one by one in a special 2019 Advent Calendar on the RSCM website.

If you are selected, you will become a spotlight feature, and we will include details about your church or school and your contribution to it.

All 24 will then go into a ballot; one lucky choir or music group will then be paired with a composer who will work with you to write a new carol or Christmas song specially for your circumstances, be that an advanced carol in eight parts, or something simple for a village church with much smaller resources, or a new song for a worship band. Whatever it is, we will publish it in 2020, with you as the dedicatees.

There’s no cost involved. All you need to do to enter is visit www.wetransfer.com, click on the blue plus sign, drag and drop you files onto the page and add the address press@rscm.com into the box that says ‘Email to’. In the message box below, please provide some form of identification and contact details. Please note: we can only accept a single piece of music per entering group; it won’t be possible for us to process a recording of, for example, a whole service.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!