North Walsham church choir grant boost

An imaginative partnership with a London church will bring an exciting development in the choral work of St Nicholas church in North Walsham. Ian Boughton reports

The partner church is St Giles-in-the-Fields in Covent Garden, which has a long history of grant-giving, and will support the Norfolk choir with £5,000 a year for three years.
 
The project was devised between Rev David Warner, pictured right, of St Nicholas and Rev Tom Sander of St Giles and will allow the North Walsham choir to be boosted by four ‘lay clerks’, experienced singers who will join what is already a respected choir, to take part in services while ‘shadowing’, mentoring and helping to further develop younger choristers.
 
“This could be quite significant,” says David Warner. “There aren’t many churches this side of Norwich with a choral tradition like St Nicholas, but after Covid, we had not developed it as much as we had hoped.
 
“I had invited Tom to preach here, and he made the suggestion of a St Giles grant to support our choir – we came up with the idea of a supported person for each part of the choir, all bringing their gifts to build up the choir as a whole.”
 
The grant, it has been stipulated, is not to be used on instruments, but ‘on music and people’.
 
“That is because churches are faced with endless calls on our money, and wicked vicars like me always want to spend our money on fixing things!
 
“Everyone identifies with the power of music, but it’s an expensive commitment - church organs alone, above, are bottomless pits for money.  So, although expertise needs to be rewarded, I would not have been able to justify spending £5,000 a year on the choir. 
 
“But now someone has shown faith in us, and in time other grant-giving organisations might be inspired by our progress to help us develop even further.”
 
At St Giles, Rev Captain Tom Sander, also padre to the Household Cavalry, says the project is part of his campaign to support creative grass-roots work in parishes outside London. 
 
“We are a church which is not short of money, but we are not interested in just feathering our own nest - we know there are wonderful clergy out there who can use support, and so our aim is to support projects which help the next generation, while promoting the Book of Common Prayer, which is a major interest for us.
 
“This is not always about starting new projects – St Nicholas already has a very good choir who clearly enjoy what they do, and enhancing what they already do will be a very good thing.”
 
St Nicholas will be advertising to find the lay clerks, who will be experienced singers, and if they are to ‘shadow’ young singers, will need to become mentors as well.  
 
“We are looking first for singers, not teachers, so the primary requirement is for people who can perform competently,” said David. “Experience in mentoring our younger singers will come later. At first, we looking for our existing singers to be inspired – you often find that the front row of a choir is pushed along by an experienced back row.
 
”We will be asking a lot of these people… but I think they will find they get a lot in return.”
 
“Church singers and musicians do not come from heaven fully formed - they need to be nurtured, and encouraged, and shown that there is a standard into which they can grow… they begin to believe ‘yes, we can do that!’  You can hear no end of people, such as Alexander Armstrong on Classic FM, who never fail to talk about how much the experience of being in a choir has brought to their life.”
 
For the church, the project will develop into outreach, says David.
 
“I hope that a bigger and more versatile group of singers will bring the St Nicholas choral tradition to a wider audience, not just at the great festivals of the year, but in singing all kinds of stuff in all kinds of places, so it will become known that our music is something to be heard.
 
“This project may not be the entire solution for that – but it’s a good kick-start!”
 
The photo of Rev Warner, above, is courtesy of David Warner.
The photo of St Nicholas church, top, is courtesy of Ian Boughton.
 
This article first appeared in Good News for Norwich and Norfolk, summer 2024.

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