What’s On:
RSCM Church Music Conference 2023
‘With the spirit and the understanding also’
An online church music conference celebrating the music we sing and play in churches and designed to help your worship and music-making flourish. We have inspirational sessions covering all aspects of the RSCM’s vast output to inspire clergy, choirs, choir trainers, and musicians. A lunchtime concert, opportunities to connect with RSCM staff and other RSCM members, in addition to a keynote address from the Very Reverend Dr Stephen Hance.
This online conference will allow RSCM Members and others from across the United Kingdom and the world to attend.
Check out the conference programme below for more information about the day.
Details
£30 for RSCM Members
Conference Programme
The Revd Dr Stephen Hance
Stephen Hance works for the National Church Institutions with particular responsibility for supporting parishes in their mission. He has served as Dean of Derby, Canon Missioner in Southwark, and as a parish priest. He is convinced that music is a crucial element in the Church’s call to mission in our context.
Sarah Burston
Sarah Burston is Head of Choral Partnerships and Development at Peterborough Cathedral, where she has also been the Chorister Singing Teacher since 2018. She has also recently taken on the role of Interim Director of Music at St John’s Church, Peterborough. Through the variety of roles Sarah has held during her career, she has experience of working with singers of all ages and abilities.
Marie Price
Marie is Director of Music for the Parish of Harpenden and a freelance music teacher and choral director, formerly Senior Lead Teacher for Hertfordshire Music Service and has taught music in primary, secondary and prep schools. Marie has been directing church choirs since the 1980s.
Jonathan Robinson
Jonathan Robinson works for the RSCM in the Education Department. A former Resident Musician of Iona Abbey, he was for over a decade the full-time Director of Music of a large evangelical Anglican church in Sussex, England. He has had a lifelong fascination with corporate worship, and especially congregational song.
Dr Andy Thomas
Andy Thomas is author of Resounding Body: Building Christlike Church Communities Through Music (Sacristy Press, 2020), an associate tutor at RSCM and a freelance church musician working mainly with Anglican and Methodist churches in Bedfordshire. Andy has served as Director of Music for a variety of churches and community choirs in Sheffield and London. His (fabulous, challenging) experience at St John’s, Waterloo inspired his book, where he built a choir from scratch despite being assured it could not be done. Andy is passionate about the power of music to grow and invigorate church communities, and is particularly keen to support those with limited musical resources.
09:00 – Conference Opens, Introductions & Director’s Welcome
09:30 – Keynote Speech – ‘A Secret Chord: Music as Mission’
Stephen Hance
10:00 – Teaching your choir new tricks
Sarah Burston
11:00 – Using music to rejuvenate your church’s worship
Jonathan Robinson
12:00 – Five things the RSCM can do for you and your church
RSCM Staff
13:00 – Lunch break with pre-recorded lunchtime concert
14:00 – Training your choir using RSCM’s Voice for Life
Marie Price
15:00 – Get your Congregation Singing
Jonathan Robinson
16:00 – Developing the Faith of your choir and church through music
Andy Thomas
16:45 – Pre-service break
17:00 – Closing Service
17:30 – Conference Concludes
*There will be 10–15 minute pauses between most sessions.