CYM Library

How to solve the tenor shortage A voice that is made, not found

It's surprising to see a leader in The Economist about the shortage of tenors! Many choirs have to deal with this problem.
www.economist.com/leaders/2026...

A drawing of a woman with dark hair, hoop earrings and a pinafore next to an artwork of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a black man wearing a beige patterned jacket with an orange patterned background.

Unsung: Treasures of the RCM opens today at the RCM Museum! Discover the untold stories of the RCM's diverse community and an array of musical curiosities. 🔍

Learn more: bit.ly/rcm-unsung

📷: © Yvadney Davis, Milein Cosman/The Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust

Creative Lives Monitor 2026 Tell us about your creative group - and you could win a £250/€290 grant.

#Libraries - @creativelivescl.bsky.social want to hear how creative groups across the UK are faring.

Everyone who completes this survey can enter a random draw to win a £250 grant to support their creative group.

www.creative-lives.org/creative-liv...

A thought for all the singers out there! 🎶

YouTube video by John Andrews MENDELSSOHN Hebrides Overture NSO

Happy Birthday Felix (performance from 2024 I think…).

Poster advertising come and sing event in Egham UK

Felix Mendelssohn’s birthday - a good reason to ask you all to come along and sing Elijah on 7th March at Strodes College 10am-4pm www.eghamchoral.org/product/come-and-sing-event “his wrath will pursue us till he destroy us” is great fun to sing atm

16 composing opportunities, including a residency programme, a call for scores, and an award for young composers:

www.alternativeclassical.co.uk/arts-jobs

The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Prize supports young composers from underrepresented backgrounds.

Prize: £1,000 bursary

Deadline: 5 Jan

www.londonmozartplayers.com/sctprize-2025/

“But there’s no market for women composers…” Let’s retire this tired idea please.

**NEW POST**

This week on women composers and "marketability", and why the idea that there's no market for women composers is nonsense. If somebody says this, what they actually mean is THEY don't know enough about the music to know how to market it.

leahbroad.substack.com/p/but-theres...

Cover image of CoMA's partsongs anthology

PARTSONGS: 12 pieces specially composed for small vocal groups, including works by Amber Priestley, Janet Oates, Christopher Fox, Kerry Andrew and Michael Pisaro. Try them in classrooms, workshops, concert halls – or even around the festive fireplace.
Order here: www.coma.org/our-music/pu...
🧵3/4

A group of primary school age children look in front of them and are singing. They are wearing green t shirts with the London Youth Choirs logo on them. Upper left hand corner: 2-9 December 2025 Upper right hand corner: Big Give Christmas Challenge Logo Lower third: Big Give, we are live! Please donate London Youth Choirs logo, convex logo, The Childhood Trust logo

Our #ChristmasChallenge is NOW LIVE 🥳

This week, please consider a donation to London Youth Choirs to help us achieve our citywide vision for all young singers 🙏

Head to the link below to donate today
🔗 donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

Wishing all musicians & music-lovers Gool Cecilia Lowen: happy St Cecilia’s Day! We’re celebrating it by singing Brahms, with soloists Florian Störtz and Francesca Chiejina & accompanied by our good friends the Three Spires Orchestra. Truro Cathedral, 7.30 tonight, tickets on the door if needed.

Out of the shadows: why Avril Coleridge-Taylor deserves to be heard The daughter of the British composer Samuel made controversial choices that took her on a different path to her father’s activism. Ahead of the premiere recording of her piano concerto, its soloist lo...

Fabulous article by Dr Samantha Ege ahead of tomorrow’s release. @leahbroad.bsky.social

A wide shot from up above of the Orchestra and Bach Choir on stage under the dome in St Paul's Cathedral

The Orchestra and Bach choir on stage. The St Paul's quire, lined with lamps, is behind them

John Rutter conducting the Orchestra

John Rutter and the Orchestra standing for applause on stage. John is stretching out his left arm.

Yesterday at St Paul's Cathedral @johnrutter.bsky.social conducted the premiere of his I'll Make Me a World with mezzo-soprano Melanie Marshall, baritone Jonathan Brown and The Bach Choir.

We also performed John's The Gift of Life, as well as Vaughan Williams' Symphony No.5.

📷 Duncan Wood

Mega-niche programming shout-out: early Baroque-ish Christmassy things for not more than SSATB (or SSATTB at a pinch) plus instruments (quartet) which involve, or /could/ involve recorders? I have the Messe de Minuit, obviously...

🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️We’re back at @sinfoniasmithsq.bsky.social on Sunday afternoon for a performance full of girl power

📘 Grab a programme to learn more about the unfairly overlooked 20th-century British composers Doreen Carwithen and Ruth Gipps

A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music - Foundling Museum Looking at the exhilarating experience and enduring impact of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ in the past and present, A Grand Chorus explores the profound effect that music can have on both listeners and per...

This exhibition at Foundling Museum, London looks interesting: "Explore the power of music thru Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’. Musical scores, librettos, musical instruments, paintings, photos, archives. A fresh look at origins & popularity of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’.

foundlingmuseum.org.uk/event/a-gran...

‘I’ve played a lot of sneery bastards’: Roger Allam on bad singing, big paydays and Elgar’s level of ‘gitacity’ He launched a thousand memes as the beleaguered Tory MP in The Thick of It, and starred in the original production of Les Misérables. Now the actor is making not-so-sweet music in the Alan Bennett-scr...

Roger Allam talks about his role in The Choral, a Alan Bennett-scripted film, directed by Nicholas Hytner. It shows a choir in 1916 preparing for a performance of the Dream of Gerontius. Simon Russell-Beale has a cameo as a very grumpy Elgar. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer for the people - Page Turner by medici.tv Jack Pepper’s Portraits series shines a light on Vaughan Williams, revealing the man behind the legendary music.

Ralph Vaughan Williams believed music should belong to everyone.

In this article, Jack Pepper opens his new Pepper’s Portraits series for medici.tv with the story of a composer who lived - and wrote - for humanity.

📖 Read it here:

Black British Composers

Here is a Spotify playlist of music by Black British composers: open.spotify.com/playlist/4BE...

It has 25 tracks and was created by Harrison Knights, Assistant Director of Music at St James Piccadilly (London) for #BlackHistoryMonth. Read more here: www.sjp.org.uk/black-britis...

A young female musician plays the Clarion in an orchestral rehearsal. She is smiling and is a wheelchair user. Blue text in a yellow box reads: "Vote for Open Up Music. Help us win €30,000 to make the Clarion widely available to young disabled people."

Help make the Clarion - our accessible musical instrument that can be played with any body part, including head movement - widely available to young disabled people.

Vote for Open Up Music in the #ArtExplora Audience Choice Award⤵️

bit.ly/ArtExplora2025

#EuropeanAward #AudienceDevelopment

Celebrating Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s 150th anniversary!

Hear the RCM alumnus' spirited Novelleten for string orchestra, performed by talented young musicians of the RCM Junior Department earlier this year.

Read more about his legacy and life at the RCM: bit.ly/3V0UJtT

#FlashbackFriday

Buckland Abbey monk music to be played after almost 500-year gap The music was discovered by a University of Exeter historian inside a 15th Century book.

#EarlyMusic is in the news this morning! But here’s a better article than the one that’s making the rounds, with more context, and input from a musicologist. The rediscovered music is #plainchant - which was the musical foundation of religious life at the time.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Graph showing decrease in UK A-level music entries 2010-2025

Sad to see. ISM’s analysis of this year’s A-level music results "shows there has been a decrease in music entries of 1.8% across the UK in the last year. In England, fewer than 5,000 students took A-level music for the third year running."
www.ism.org/news/music-a...

Newsletter — Alternative Classical Receive concert recommendations, music jobs and opportunities, and news of innovation in the classical music sector.

Sign up to our newsletter to receive our updates twice a month. This includes job and funding opportunities, new articles and upcoming events. www.alternativeclassical.co.uk/newsletter

A lady ballerina dancing in a library

We are delighted to announce that Pontefract Library will be hosting an amazing exhibition about the history of Black British Ballet!

At the library on 1-27 August!

Our libraries are also hosting fun events as part of it!

For more information, visit: experiencewakefield.co.uk/event/black-...

What makes Ralph Vaughan Williams special as a composer?

This is a terrific disc. But, more importantly, what a composer Grace Williams was. Such a powerful and utterly distinctive voice. And, as well as this, her masterpiece - the huge, stunning Missa Cambrensis - is at last now on disc too.

🎼✨ Dream of conducting with the best? Here’s your chance!
The Sixteen is offering a prestigious Conducting Scholarship in the UK 🎶
Apply by 27 May 2025 and take your place at the podium! 🧑‍🎼
@The Sixteen
www.chorally.co/c/opportunit...

Frank has turned his IAML UK ASW talk from last month into a blogpost.