Your RCO event details can be found below.
Please note that the 24-hour clock is used on all event listings, with all times being GMT/BST. To book courses and classes, please follow the Book Online link wherever you see it, and email bookings@rco.org.uk or call 020 3865 6998 with any queries. Where events are free or not bookable online, please follow the instructions for that event.
The flexible format of our annual choral directing workshop provides stimulus and tuition for conductors of all standards from beginner to those with a great deal of experience working with choirs. We are delighted and privileged to welcome Simon Carrington to lead the day. A founder member of the King's Singers, he was until 2009 Professor of Choral Conducting at Yale University and director of Yale's Schola Cantorum, a twenty-four voice choir which he bought to international prominence. He now works internationally as a conductor and choral clinician, but with only rare appearances in the latter role in the UK. Don't miss this chance to benefit from his expertise both as a conductor and as a teacher. Click here to see photographs and to read an account of a previous RCO Academy Choral Directing Workshop. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to book online. (Non-RCO Members and non-organists welcome!)
VENUE
We are based at the Central London church of St George's, Hanover Square, just 5 minutes' walk from Oxford Circus tube station.
FORMAT OF DAY
Taking the requirements of the RCO's Choral Directing Diploma as a starting point, the day divides into two sessions. In the morning we look at the basics of working with choirs: warm-up exercises, the relationship between gesture and the response from singers, and between gesture and interpretation, and how to prepare scores and plan your rehearsals. In the afternoon, a professional standard chamber choir will be present allowing five pre-selected conductors to work with the singers for twenty minutes each, concentrating on their own technique and interpretative ideas without having to spend time teaching the notes. Those not conducting will learn much by observing. Repertoire can be chose from the list for RCO Choral Directing Diploma (click the link above for details) or you may suggest your own pieces (maximum amount of divisi: SSAATTBB), providing you can supply at least 10 copies of the music, preferably more. Those wishing to work as active conductors should indicate this when booking. Those selected will be informed in advance of the day and asked to pay an additional fee of £20 on the day. (As at 10.3.16 all active conductor places have been booked. We will now open a waiting list. There is still plenty of room for observers.) Please contact Simon Williams, Director RCO Academy (tel 05600 767237), if you have any questions before booking.
Based on past experience, this day will be of great benefit to:Beginning choral conductors, who will gain an introduction to basic conducting technique and how to work effectively with singers.More experienced conductors who have had little or no formal conducting tuition or who are looking for new stimulus.Those preparing for or considering taking the RCO's Choral Directing Diploma (for which advanced keyboard skills are not required and which allows the choice or sacred and/or secular repertoire).
Attendance fees:
£60 RCO Member
£30 RCO Student Member
£40 Full time student
£70 All others
£20 Active Conductor Supplement (payable on the day)
For RCO courses and classes, the following key is used as a guide to level and suitability:
Beginner (Grades 1-4)
Intermediate (Grades 4-6)
Advanced (Grades 6-8 / CRCO)
Diploma 1 (CRCO–ARCO)
Diploma 2 (ARCO–FRCO)