Cathedral Music Trust Conference 2024: New Generation Perspectives
Overview and Introduction
The Academic Conference of Cathedral Music Trust took place in September 2024 at Sarum College, Salisbury. The selection of papers published in this special issue comprises eight articles that cover a varied spread of topics within the field covered by the event. In editing these for inclusion, a number of themes were evident that will be of interest to abcd members, especially those whose choirs perform in church buildings or whose repertoire overlaps with that of liturgical performance, as well as issues that relate to all choral directors such as the preservation of vocal health and the recruitment of new participants and audiences.
The articles have been grouped into three broad themes: Society, gender, and diversity; Spirituality, tradition and relevance; and Education, motivation and opportunity. Within each of these themes, articles both complement one another and diverge in their interpretation of the issues with which they deal.
Society, gender, and diversity
- Peter Gunstone: Diverse people inhabiting praise together
- Simone Krüger Bridge: Harmony in diversity: the societal impact of Liverpool Cathedral’s egalitarian music outreach programme in the Liverpool city region
Spirituality, tradition and relevance
- The Rev Professor June Boyce-Tillman MBE: Grace and tradition: spiritualities in cathedral music
- Denise Stobart: The divine as an integral part of religious cognition experienced through music during worship in the Anglican tradition: liturgical music and embodied spiritualisation
- Meg Rees: A detailed exploration of choral evensong and its significance in 2024
Education, motivation and opportunity
- Isobel Frances Chesman: The vocal health status of Lay Clerks in English Anglican cathedral choirs
- Hannah Deasy: Pupils, primers and potential: exploring a chorister’s lay education at Exeter Cathedral in the mid-eighteenth century
- Hanna Rijken: Pilgrimages to English Cathedrals: The popular practice of visiting choirs from the Netherlands singing choral evensong in England
