Ripon Cathedral Choir School

[Magnificat]

VCC. I'm remaining firmly neutral, thouigh it is a minor tragedy for a lot of people when a school has to close. I would make the point that in an area like St Alban's, in the South East and near large centres of population (same goes for Guildford) recruitment of day boys and girls is a lot easier than it would be in Ripon. This is no sleight on the good folks of Ripon! Just a geographical and demographical fact.

ardcarp

No it's not easy. BR never found it easy and neither does Andrew Lucas. It requires a lot of hard work going around the local schools giving presentations etc and especially persuading parents to give the commitment necessary but there is a much wider pool of resources waiting to be tapped than just relying on potential choristers whose parents might want them to attend an associated school.

There must be quite a lot of schools both primary and secondary in the Ripon area.It's worth a try at least. It's probably going to be more of a problem getting good men I should think.

Obviously the closure of the choir school is a tragedy and I was pleased to read that all the pupils and teachers have been offered places at another private school. Whether this school would be able to provide the choristers for the cathedral in the same way as Dean Close does for Tewkesbury there is no mention.

VCC

[Lackoffaith]

Obviously the closure of the choir school is a tragedy and I was pleased to read that all the pupils and teachers have been offered places at another private school.

VCC[/QUOTE]

[Lackoffaith]

The above quote astonishes me. I would like to know where you get your information from as all staff have not been offered jobs at another private school.

[DracoM]

And as a matter of cold fact, there is NOT an enormous number of primary or secondary schools in the vicinity, state or independent. Distances between useful centres of population are bigger than in the SE, local transport is a good deal sketchier or even non-existent, thus to get a decent number of boys / girls who wish to sing into Ripon regularly, parents would be faced with an enormous travel bill, even if said parents shared etc and one or other was always available to drive in, wait around, drive back etc day after day.

The St Alban's situation in the SE home counties is socially / population density-wise entirely unlike the Ripon situation, and I really do wish we would stop pontificating on the situation facing other foundations and basing the 'advice' on St Alban's.

Check out a a map of North Yorkshire, and keep silent.

[yorks_bass]

Check out a a map of North Yorkshire, and keep silent.

Like

[Wolsey]

Check out a a map of North Yorkshire, and keep silent.

Like

[Magnificat]

The above quote astonishes me. I would like to know where you get your information from as all staff have not been offered jobs at another private school.

Lackoffaith,

An article on the school's closure in the latest edition of the Church Times states that Queen Ethelburga's College near York is prepared to take on all pupils and staff.

The provost of St Ethelburga's, Brian Martin ,has said that they have made a wide - ranging offer to Ripon Cathedral chapter which they are discussing. Their principal is an associate of the Royal College of Music and is evidently choir and music through and through so there is an empathy there. They have also just built a £4 million choral, music and drama centre.

VCC

[Magnificat]

And as a matter of cold fact, there is NOT an enormous number of primary or secondary schools in the vicinity, state or independent. Distances between useful centres of population are bigger than in the SE, local transport is a good deal sketchier or even non-existent, thus to get a decent number of boys / girls who wish to sing into Ripon regularly, parents would be faced with an enormous travel bill, even if said parents shared etc and one or other was always available to drive in, wait around, drive back etc day after day.

Check out a a map of North Yorkshire, and keep silent.

Draco,

All I can say is that the Dean and Chapter obviously think that there are enough school in the area to make recruitment from them a viable option. No doubt travelling has been considered.

VCC

[Vile Consort]

It never ceases to surprise me that a town the size of Ripon (or Ely, or Truro, which must be similar in population) can muster enough youngsters to make up a choir of that quality on so many days of the week.

[DracoM]

Ripon Choir School took kids from all over the north of England as well as North Yorks.

[Magnificat]

It never ceases to surprise me that a town the size of Ripon (or Ely, or Truro, which must be similar in population) can muster enough youngsters to make up a choir of that quality on so many days of the week.

Vile Consort /Draco

Bury St Edmunds has no choir school and I should think has similar demographics to Ripon. When I visited the cathedral recently the choirs seem to be very well supplied with boys from local state and private schools.

However large or small the population surrounding cathedrals without choir schools success in recruitment of boys will depend solely on the persuasive abilities of the DoM to sell the idea and advantages of singing in a choir to the boys and their parents. Most boys will have a voice that is capable of being trained. How well they sing will depend, as always, on the musical ability and charisma of the DoM.

Where a place like St Albans really has an advantage over Ripon is in the strong musical culture of the city and surrounding towns and villages, its closeness to London and, consequently, the availability of high quality men to sing in the back row. The fact that it has the largest regular congregation of any cathedral in the country also helps considerably when it comes to raising finance.

Getting enough boys to sing in a cathedral choir is always going to be hard work whether there is an associated school or not but at least the DoM will have a greater pool of potential resources if he/she recruits from all the local schools rather than relying on just using boys from within a radius of about 100 miles (which is usual these days) whose parents can afford the fees of an associated school. As I have said it's worth a try for Ripon if the D&C think it is viable to do so in that particular part of the world and the DoM is up for it.

VCC.

[Lackoffaith]

Lackoffaith,

An article on the school's closure in the latest edition of the Church Times states that Queen Ethelburga's College near York is prepared to take on all pupils and staff.

The provost of St Ethelburga's, Brian Martin ,has said that they have made a wide - ranging offer to Ripon Cathedral chapter which they are discussing. Their principal is an associate of the Royal College of Music and is evidently choir and music through and through so there is an empathy there. They have also just built a £4 million choral, music and drama centre.

VCC

Magnificat,
As my forum name suggests, I have no desire to read the Church Times. However, with regard to 'all', please read the Ripon Gazette article published 26 July.
LOF

[yorks_bass]

An article on the school's closure in the latest edition of the Church Times states that Queen Ethelburga's College near York is prepared to take on all pupils and staff.

The provost of St Ethelburga's, Brian Martin ,has said that they have made a wide - ranging offer to Ripon Cathedral chapter which they are discussing. Their principal is an associate of the Royal College of Music and is evidently choir and music through and through so there is an empathy there. They have also just built a £4 million choral, music and drama centre.

I think it's reasonably safe to say that this won't be happening. I don't know the reasons, although from recent issues of Private Eye I could understand there being reservations over such a move.

I know there is a lot of bad feeling over this closure, and the fact that some of the people calling in the debt were the same people that made the decision to close the school. There has been some more positive news regarding the school itself more recently, and I dare say this will be divulged at some point soon. It doesn't solve what I think is an entirely delusional Cathedral project regarding its reconstructed music foundation, and I say this as someone who knows Ripon well. That there will be some choristers recruited who wouldn't otherwise have had the chance is not in doubt. But a place like Ripon managing 2 sets of 24 from such a small pool? Well it's only my view, but I find it hard to believe. Could it lead eventually to mixing the choirs? I wouldn't be surprised...

[DracoM]

Some news in the making on this topic. Watch this space.

[amateur51]

Some news in the making on this topic. Watch this space.

How thoroughly gripping