Ripon Cathedral has received a grant of £30,000 from the Cathedral Music Trust, part of half a million-pound investment in cathedral music for 2024. This financial boost will fund vocal coaching amongst other aspects of chorister training and is wonderful news ahead of the choir tour to Germany later this month.
The CMT said:
These awards will support music departments to continue and further their brilliant work both in their own cathedrals and churches, and in the wider community… At the heart of this vital funding is our commitment to championing excellence in choral and organ music, and providing opportunities for people from all walks of life to thrive and develop.
The grant for Ripon includes the funding of outreach and chaperones as well as vocal training. Director of Music, Dr Ronny Krippner says, ‘Thanks to the generous support of the CMT, we are now in a strong position to expand both the provision for vocal training of our choristers and the professional development of our lay clerks, as well as engage supernumerary lay clerks more regularly to support the large number of treble voices in our cathedral choir. I am delighted!”
Dean John said:
Music at Ripon Cathedral is enjoying a renaissance, but nothing can be taken for granted. Continued care and development of our growing number of choristers and choral scholars and sustained professional training for our superb lay clerks requires financial commitment, which is why I am extremely grateful for this grant.
Ripon Cathedral choir goes on tour to Germany this month, the latest exciting chapter in a story which has seen the renaissance of a dwindling choir over a two year period.
Post pandemic the boys’ choir had folded, with boys and girls singing together. Covid had made recruitment impossible and numbers were falling. However, following two large scale recruitment drives at schools in the region (the cathedral has just completed a third) there are now more than 60 choristers with thriving boys’ and girls’ choirs and a growing number of choral scholars – older students who were either choristers or have experience joined since.
Now, two years after it was reformed the choir has recorded its first commercial CD ready for Christmas, and Dr Krippner is taking the singers to his native Bavaria. There, the choir will be singing services and concerts at Munich Cathedral, Regensburg Cathedral, Waldsassen Basilica and Nuremberg Frauenkirche.
