Contact:
Stephen Bick
Email:
bickstephen@gmail.com
Address:
St Elizabeth of Portugal,
The Vineyard
Locality:
Richmond
Postcode/Zip:
Tw106AQ
Other details:
St Elizabeth of Portugal is looking for Assistant DoM to accompany our flourishing choir and help it grow.
Dates:
Deadline for CVs/applications: Sunday 30th June
Auditions: one of the following Sundays: 30th June, 7th July, 14th July.
The Choir:
St Elizabeth’s choir is a mixed amateur/professional group of around 10-15 singers. We are ambitious, inclusive and social, and sing the best Catholic music of the last thousand years for the glory of God and to help the people in the parish. The musical standard is high, but we only do one rehearsal a week, for an hour before Sunday Mass. We sing one or two motets per week, a new mass setting every month or so, and a mixture of chant propers and hymns. To see our music list from Holy Week this year, and listen to some recordings, click here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1n_9-xpz9LdQDsfICt0HFCg8jbEdvpui8?usp=drive_link
Choral Scholarships:
We run a training scheme every year for four student/young professional choral scholars, who sing with the choir each week and receive conductor training, with the goal that they could run choirs in parishes after finishing the year. This also means that every part in the choir has at least one professional to bump it at all times, and that we can do consort music whenever we like.
The Instrument:
A 3-manual 1993 Copeman & Hart electronic organ. We recently restored all the speakers and moved them into the choir loft (next to the console), and it sounds wonderful.
Duties and fees:
NB I ticked 'fee by negotiation' above because there wasn't a single number I wanted to put down there. Instead, here's a more detailed breakdown of current fees:
Accompany choir during rehearsal Sunday 10, and during 11 Mass, including chant, hymns, motets, Mass settings. £75 fee.
Accompany choir for special services (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday, Easter Vigil): £100 fee.
Deputize for DoM when he’s away: £100 fee.
First refusal on extra services (weddings, funerals, internal concerts etc.), £150 fee.
Assist with some of the following, ad hoc, based on your interest, ability and availability: concert series artistic direction, concert series marketing and promotion, conductor training, typesetting, editing and arranging, video/audio recording projects, choir web presence.
You’ll be paid as a contractor, invoicing us each month and self-employed for tax purposes. We pay invoices quickly.
Essential qualities
First rate liturgical accompanist across varied repertoire: stonking hymns, obscure chant, continuo realisation, new commissions, French Romantic Masses, fantastic voluntaries.
Helpful rehearsal pianist, including score reading in 4+ parts (modern clefs).
Able and sensitive liturgical improviser.
Knowledge and love of the repertoire.
Good and timely communicator.
Easy to work with.
Sympathy and respect for Catholic liturgy.
A recognised organ qualification (e.g. the ARCO).
Desirable qualities
Good singer, able to step in when needed.
Choir training/conducting experience.
Practicing Catholic.
Audition/interview process:
Please send a CV by email. Selected candidates will be invited to come in on a Sunday morning and play during the end of a service, doing the following:
1) improvising around a communion chant while the choir receives communion
2) accompanying the choir while they sing the same chant
3) accompanying the choir for a medium-difficulty motet scored for choir and organ
4) accompanying a rousing final hymn
5) playing an impressive voluntary
After the service, we’ll do some brief sight-reading/score reading tests and an informal interview.
Please email me if you have any questions