Appointments 2

[Positif]

On 27/08/2020 at 22:36, David Cynan Jones said:

Ripon advertising for an Interim Director of Music.

https://www.riponcathedral.org.uk/interim-director-of-music/

With most cathedral musicians on a term's notice, presumably they're hoping for either an internal appointment or to bring someone out of retirement etc., otherwise it would be a very short fixed term indeed!

[Guest]

St Edmundsbury are advertising for a Director of Music:

https://stedscathedral.org/news/vacancies/

[DaveHarries]

On 27/08/2020 at 22:36, David Cynan Jones said:

Ripon advertising for an Interim Director of Music.

https://www.riponcathedral.org.uk/interim-director-of-music/

Quick update on this one. The pew sheet from Southwark Cathedral on 18th October advises that the lunchtime organ concert of 19th October was given by Peter Wright - previously (?) DoM of Southwark Cathedral - who is referred to as Interim DoM of Ripon Cathedral: it seems he will be in post as such until Summer 2021.

I say "previously" DoM of Southwark Cathedral with a question mark: it is not clear if his departure from Southwark to Ripon is only until next Summer pending return to Southwark after he finishes at Ripon, unless he obtains the Ripon job on a permanent basis of course.

Dave

[Dr Nigel H Day]

16 minutes ago, DaveHarries said:

Quick update on this one. The pew sheet from Southwark Cathedral on 18th October advises that the lunchtime organ concert of 19th October was given by Peter Wright - previously (?) DoM of Southwark Cathedral - who is referred to as Interim DoM of Ripon Cathedral: it seems he will be in post as such until Summer 2021.

I say "previously" DoM of Southwark Cathedral with a question mark: it is not clear if his departure from Southwark to Ripon is only until next Summer pending return to Southwark after he finishes at Ripon, unless he obtains the Ripon job on a permanent basis of course.

Dave

Ian Keatley is the new DoM replacing PW as of Summer 2019.

[OwenTurner]

All straight forward at Southwark. Peter Wright retired. 
https://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/9902

[DaveHarries]

2 hours ago, OwenTurner said:

All straight forward at Southwark. Peter Wright retired. 
https://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/9902

Thanks for the info.

Dave

[John Morris]

I see that Salisbury Cathedral is looking for an Assistant Director of Music according to Organists Online. 

https://organistsonline.org/required/Organist-Salisbury-Cathedral-November-27-2020 

[Guest]

Timothy Parsons has been appointed Director of Music at St Edmundsbury Cathedral. He is currently Assistant Director of Music at Exeter Cathedral.

[DaveHarries]

9 hours ago, michaelwilson said:

Timothy Parsons has been appointed Director of Music at St Edmundsbury Cathedral. He is currently Assistant Director of Music at Exeter Cathedral.

Just had a look on Exeter's website. Luckily they will have Mr. Parsons' talents among them for a while yet as he doesn't move on until April.

https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/news-events/latest-news/exeter-cathedrals-assistant-director-of-music-to-take-up-new-role-at-st-edmundsbury/

Dave

[Vox Humana]

Advert for the Exeter job

https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/about-us/vacancies/

[mrbouffant]

On 11/12/2020 at 17:55, Vox Humana said:

Advert for the Exeter job

https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/about-us/vacancies/

Not a lot of money in cathedral music making, is there? At least accommodation is provided (tax free) which I guess must be the equivalent of another 20K gross on the base, approximately.

[Martin Cooke]

1 hour ago, mrbouffant said:

Not a lot of money in cathedral music making, is there? At least accommodation is provided (tax free) which I guess must be the equivalent of another 20K gross on the base, approximately.

It's extraordinary really - and SUCH high standards in terms of skills required - and not just referring to Exeter. I wouldn't have thought the accommodation was worth anything like that - even at £1000 a month, it's only £12,000pa, and I doubt very much if the assistant DoM of any cathedral's accommodation equates to £1000 a month - more like £500. Music posts in independent schools (especially boarding schools) where in the best, similar standards and skills may be needed - along with others, of course - make a FAR more lucrative option. 

[Rowland Wateridge]

I’m no taxation expert, but I’m not sure that ‘rent free’ means ‘tax free’.  I hope it does for the sake of the successful applicant, but harbour doubts about HMRC’s possible view.

On another thread recently I quoted Walford Davies’ salary as organist of St George’s Chapel Windsor at £600 per annum plus a house in the Castle.  Alwyn Surplice was appointed his assistant at £100 pa, and no mention of a house.  These were the figures circa 1930 (I haven’t checked the exact dates), but the current day equivalents would be around £27,500 and £4,600 respectively.  

As Martin states, given the skills and qualifications (FRCO minimum specified in this case), professional church musicians are hardly over-rewarded.  Fortunately the differential isn’t as drastic as it was in 1930.

 

[DHM]

Church musicians (at least on this side of the Pond) are rarely well-paid.

My first appointment, as "Pupil Assistant Organist" as a teenager in 1963, paid the princely sum of £15.0.0 per annum - less the cost of organ lessons!

[Vox Humana]

32 minutes ago, DHM said:

My first appointment, as "Pupil Assistant Organist" as a teenager in 1963, paid the princely sum of £15.0.0 per annum - less the cost of organ lessons!

That's fifteen times what I got as a choirboy—half a crown a quarter.  1963 was the year I gravitated from a mere (unofficial and unpaid) assistant to my first proper organist's job, in a tiny church, at the luxurious wage of £1 a week—which was pretty much the going rate, locally, at the time. Being not yet 14 years old, I was extremely grateful that the church was sufficiently principled to pay the full rate for the job and not take advantage of my youth by cutting its costs. Even better, a member of the congregation preferred to put his weekly collection into my pocket rather than the church's, thus doubling my income. Wealth untold! Most of it went on organ music and LPs.

[OwenTurner]

On 12/12/2020 at 22:43, Rowland Wateridge said:

I’m no taxation expert, but I’m not sure that ‘rent free’ means ‘tax free’.  I hope it does for the sake of the successful applicant, but harbour doubts about HMRC’s possible view.

Anything an employee gets given by employer for free is taxed as a benefit in kind in schedule D income tax. The usual mechanism is that the value of the benefit is decided and then taxed as if salary and recovered in PAYE by a reduction in personal allowance. There would also be a year end P11d form and a likely personal tax return. This area is most common with company cars or company funded health insurance but it is bound to apply to accommodation I fear.

It strikes me that being a paid choir member (eg lay clerk or choral scholar) is potentially a lot more lucrative, by the hour, than an organist. A lay clerk will rarely need to do a lot of prep outside contracted rehearsal time, an organist inevitably will. Fairly obviously, people don't take up these appointments with the money as the attraction. Coupled with a part time teaching post, perhaps some BBC "Daily Service" work, some big weddings and concert work I am sure it could look better, but all those are extra work too. We are all lucky that there is a queue of amazingly talented people wanting to take such posts.

[petergunstone]

1 hour ago, OwenTurner said:

Anything an employee gets given by employer for free is taxed as a benefit in kind in schedule D income tax.

Except, I understand, accommodation in cases where it is an occupational requirement/condition of service that one lives in accommodation provided for the necessary fulfilment of duties, e.g. house parents in a school, a minister of religion living in a house specified for their role. 

[petergunstone]

On 12/12/2020 at 19:12, mrbouffant said:

Not a lot of money in cathedral music making, is there? At least accommodation is provided (tax free) which I guess must be the equivalent of another 20K gross on the base, approximately.

I'm not sure that "equivalent" is a fair term to use here. Whilst one might benefit from provided accommodation in terms of immediately reduced outgoings on account of said accommodation, one potentially loses the longer term opportunity of investing in one's own estate. Whilst I it is fair to reckon to offset some expenses when accommodation is provided, it isn't fair to consider such an offset in terms of a 1:1 ratio. Moreover, whilst the use of a property within the cathedral's estate may seem like a privilege, for all that privilege, the occupant may have otherwise chosen to live elsewhere, and simply accepted that provision as a part of (or, indeed, condition of) the employment package.

My simple point is to agree with you that there is, indeed, "not a lot of money in cathedral music making" from the perspective of this role. And then there is the lot of lay clerks...

[Guest]

In Victorian times it was common that both organists and lay clerks worked as music teachers, I suspect the demand for pianoforte instruction was quite high. A lay clerk might have a basic salary of £70 per annum in 1870, about £8,500 in today's money, a cathedral organist £180, today worth £21,000, so external work was probably desirable.

 

[Martin Cooke]

16 minutes ago, michaelwilson said:

In Victorian times it was common that both organists and lay clerks worked as music teachers...

And more recently, I am sure some cathedral sub organists were expected to function as DoM at the Cathedral School is there was one. Actually, wasn't John Sanders Director of Music at King's School, Gloucester, whilst also DoM at the Cathedral? Harry Gabb, sub organist at St Paul's was also Organist, Conductor and Composer at HM Chapel Royal at St James. And John Scott was initially simultaneously sub organist at St Paul's and at Southwark Cathedral. 

[Positif]

On 28/02/2020 at 08:16, Positif said:

Interesting juxtaposition of job adverts in Oxford.  St Peter's College - a 0.4 position for two services a week, £19k.  Worcester College - a 0.4 position for four services a week, £14k.  

Anyone know if Worcester were able to appoint mid-lockdown, as St Peter's was (Quentin Beer)? I think Professor Darlington is still holding the fort?

[andrewm]

Master of the Music job at Westminster Cathedral has now been advertised:

https://jobs.churchtimes.co.uk/jobs/Master-of-Music-in-London-and-Home-Counties-jn8906

[Rowland Wateridge]

An interesting requirement “FRCO or higher is desirable”.   Does that mean a university music degree above first degree, I wonder.

[Vox Humana]

1 hour ago, andrewm said:

Master of the Music job at Westminster Cathedral has now been advertised:

https://jobs.churchtimes.co.uk/jobs/Master-of-Music-in-London-and-Home-Counties-jn8906

I really can't imagine who would want that job, but I'm sure someone will.

[Dr Nigel H Day]

Westminster.  “Accommodation near the Cathedral is provided on licence.”  Any idea what this means ?

It will be interesting to see who applies, if the shortlist ever leaks out.