Cathedral Music Trust Awards

Ten Church of England cathedrals are to benefit from The Cathedral Music Trust’s announcement of awards totalling £400,000 to support high-quality music provision at 22 choral foundations across the UK.

Cathedral Music Trust announces awards totalling £400,000 to support high-quality music at cathedrals

The 2022 grants programme was set up to sustain and expand the work of leading choirs within cathedrals and churches across the UK, enabling this musical heritage to evolve and thrive, and to inspire future generations.

Bradford, Carlisle, Coventry, Leicester (pictured), Portsmouth, Southwark, St Paul’s, Truro, Wakefield Cathedral and Westminster Abbey all benefit from the grants, as do St Davids and Bangor cathedrals from the Church in Wales, and some Catholic cathedrals and other Major Churches.

The Trust has been encouraged by the commitment of choral foundations to sustain musical excellence in worship and develop future talent through chorister education and engagement programmes and said these programmes were vital in ensuring choral foundations could further widen and diversify the pool from which choristers are recruited.

The past two years have seen the Trust adapt its grant-giving in response to the global pandemic, both through its own programmes and its involvement in the Cathedral Choirs’ Emergency Fund, which saw £1 million raised and distributed to help cathedral music recover from the financial impact of lockdowns.

In 2022, the Trust has awarded funding both to support the ongoing work of music departments and to help them flourish and grow by working together with their communities, giving children and young people from all backgrounds the opportunity to experience the many benefits of participating in cathedral music.

Among its 22 grants this year, the Trust will be supporting Leicester Cathedral Choir, as it shares its music in parishes across the diocese, Welsh-language choral scholars at St Deiniol’s Cathedral, Bangor, a dynamic new schools’ singing programme in Croydon and voice coaching for young people in several choirs, including Arundel Cathedral, Bradford Cathedral and St Wulfram’s Church, Grantham.

Peter Allwood, Chair of Cathedral Music Trust, said:

‘Sacred choral music brings joy to people and life to our cathedrals, churches and communities. This round of funding from Cathedral Music Trust will help develop the music-making in choral foundations that is deeply loved and admired by local communities and international audiences.

‘We are very aware of continued financial pressures on music across the UK’s cathedrals and churches, and as in previous years, we received more applications than we could fund. 

“The Trust remains deeply committed to increasing support for all working in cathedral music, both through its funding programmes, and through advocacy and campaigning,” he added.