We celebrating the great work that church choirs are doing up and down the country by showcasing seven choirs which received Church Choir Awards in 2025.
The Church Choir Award, delivered in partnership with the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM), recognises the crucial contribution that churches make to choral and organ music. Funding provided through the programme helps church choirs to enhance and develop their work through innovative projects. The RSCM also provide all recipients with a year’s group membership of the RSCM and access to their ground-breaking Voice for Life digital resources.
Keep reading to find out more about the church choirs which have received funding through the programme this year.
Boston, St Botolph
Funding will help the choir to provide support for transport to remove barriers to being in the choir.
The award will allow us to support disadvantaged choristers and enable them to grow their musical skills as valued members of our historic, living choral tradition, reducing barriers to access for young people, caused by the combination of our rural setting and a lack of access to private transport.
Guildford, Holy Trinity
Funding will help the choir to set up a ‘Changing Voices Programme’ to support both boy and girl choristers through voice change.
This funding will significantly improve the support we can provide to choristers going through voice change. Not only will this help these boys and girls at a difficult time, but it will also enable them to continue singing, enriching our choir and the wider choral scene into their teenage years.
Newcastle, St Gabriel
Funding will help the choir to recruit two choral scholars to mentor young singers, lead services, and assist with Kodály-based training for 5-13-year-olds.
This award helps us offer something rare: free, high-quality musical training for children who might otherwise miss out. Our new choral scholars will not only inspire and support young singers—they’ll also grow as leaders themselves, gaining invaluable and personally tailored experience in education, mentoring, and choral leadership.
Earley, St Peter
Funding will help the choir to provide a number of activities to boost recruitment and retention, including vocal training, ‘Be a Chorister’ days and visits.
This award will allow us to develop our Song School set-up and provide additional initiatives such as singing lessons, recruitment drives, socials and outreach events. The Song School is an important part of our church and we hope the children involved will benefit greatly from this grant.
Bradford Catholic Youth Choir
Funding will help the choir provide an additional Choral Director at rehearsals to support young singers through vocal transitions, lead sectionals for those moving from junior to senior choirs, and found two changing voices groups.
Image © Sammie Rose
Our singers are drawn from state schools across Bradford, one of the most deprived cities in the country. This grant will enable us to give extra musical and technical support to these children at key transitions in their vocal lives, ensuring the many benefits of choral singing last a lifetime.
St Martin in Roath
Funding will help to establish a junior section of their Liturgical Choir.
This award will allow us to establish a junior section to our Liturgical Choir with a dedicated animateur to enthuse and train a new generation of choristers. This fills a missing link in our music programme and will assist us with our missionary work among young people.
Merton Park, St Mary the Virgin
Funding will help to create a weekly Music Theory and Musicianship club.
This award will allow us to provide more tuition to our choristers, developing their skills they use on a weekly basis already. It’ll be transformational for our youngest choristers in particular, who can grow their musicianship further, and can impact the wider community too, potentially helping with chorister recruitment.
