RSCM America sponsors a number of summer training courses throughout the United States. Each course is as unique as its setting. All
courses provide the opportunity for choral training and exploring
wonderful choral music in liturgical and/or concert settings. Some
courses offer master classes in organ performance, choral conducting
and composition. Several courses offer adult seminars, activities,
and opportunities for networking and fellowship.
The Courses
take place in cathedrals and other large churches in major cities
with choristers residing in hotels, university settings, small private
schools or rustic, lakefront facilities. All course locations are
chosen for the safety and comfort of the participants. Each course
includes additional activities. These activities can include sports,
recreation, crafts, field trips and boat races. There are customs
unique to each course that generate fun and enthusiasm.
The music directors
are renowned in their field and offer excellent leadership for youths
and adults to learn new techniques and skills. In addition, significant
opportunities for spiritual and theological enrichment are also
offered.
The
Training Courses provide programs for:
Boy
(Treble) Choristers
Girl
Choristers
Mixed Youth
Choirs
Teens
Advanced
Trebles
Advanced
Teens
Adults
Organ Students
CLICK ON the video below to learn and HEAR more
about our Training Courses!
RSCM America 2010 Training Courses
Click here to download the 2010 Training Course Brochure
Participants: 40 boys, age 10-18, and 15 adults Dates: July 12-18, 2010 Music Director: Bruce Neswick Organist: Casey Cantwell Concerts/Services Venue: University of Tulsa, Okla. Course Fees: $525 resident, $350 commuter. RSCM members receive a $25 discount Contact: Sara Arnold, Course Manager: (918) 640-4274 or saraarno@swbell.net; Casey Cantwell, Course Manager: (918) 582-4128 or ccantwell@trinitytulsa.org More Information:www.rscmtulsa.org
Courses for Girls, Teen Girls, and Adults
GULF COAST COURSE
Participants: 20 girls, age 10-18, and 10 adults Dates: June 14-20, 2010 Music Director: Garmon Ashby Residential Venue: University of St. Thomas, Houston, Tex. Concerts/Services Venues: Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, the Chapel of St. Basil and St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Houston Course Fees: $495. RSCM members receive a $30 discount Contact: Courtney Daniell-Knapp, Course Manager, cdknapp@palmerchurch.org
CAROLINA COURSE
Participants: 40 girls, age 10-18, and 25 adults Dates: July 12-18, 2010 Music Director: Michael Kleinschmidt Residential Venue: Saint Mary’s School, Raleigh, N.C. Concerts/Services Venues: Various churches in the Raleigh area Course Fees: $550. RSCM members receive a $25 discount. $100 deposit due April 1, balance due June 1. Contact: Nancy Hendricks, Course Manager (843) 889-0428 or carolinarscm@gmail.com More Information:www.carolinarscm.org
Courses for Girls, Boys, Teens and Adults
ST. LOUIS COURSE
Participants: 25 girls, 25 boys, 25 adults, and 1 organ scholar Dates: July 5-11, 2010 Music Director: Simon Lole Residential Venue: Todd Hall Retreat Center, Columbia, Ill.
Concerts/Services Venues: Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and Grace Episcopal Church, Kirkwood, Mo.
Course Fees: $525. RSCM members receive a $25 discount Contact: Phillip Brunswick, Course Manager: bvmcentral@aol.com
CHARLOTTE COURSE
Participants: 60 young singers ages 10-18, 30 adults, and 2 organ scholars Dates: July 19-25, 2010 Music Director: Richard Webster Organist: Marilyn Keiser Residential Venue: Queens University of Charlotte, N.C. Concerts/Services Venues: St. John’s Episcopal Church and Myers Park Baptist Church, Charlotte Course Fees: $495 before April 1, $525 after April 1. RSCM members receive a $25 discount Contact: Alan Reed, Course Manager: (704) 408-7489, rscmcharlotte@aol.com or
Tracy Reed, Course Manager: (704) 849-9791 More Information:www.saintjohns-charlotte.org/rscm
WASHINGTON COURSE for ADVANCED TREBLES
Participants: 8 boys and 22 girls of advanced ability (red or yellow ribbon, or equivalent) Dates: July 26 - August 1, 2010 Music Director: David Ogden Residential Venue: St. Albans School, Washington, D.C. Concerts/Services Venues: Resident choir at Washington National Cathedral Course Fees: $625 for trebles in residence, $375 for adult day observers. RSCM members receive a $25 discount Contact: RSCM America Office, (609) 921-3012 or office@rscmamerica.org.
KING'S COLLEGE COURSE
Participants: 60 girls, 40 boys, 30 teens/young adults, 20 adults, and 2 organ scholars Dates: July 26 - August 1, 2010 Music Director: Barry Rose Organist: Mark Laubach Residential Venue: The Campus of King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Concerts/Services Venues: St. Stephen’s ProCathedral, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Course Fees: $525. RSCM members receive a $25 discount Contact: Rev. Linda Rosengren, Course Manager, kingscourse@bellsouth.net More Information:www.kingscollegecourse.com
NEW! RHODE ISLAND COURSE AT NEWPORT
Participants: Boys and girls, age 9-17 Dates: August 2–8, 2010 Music Director: Ben Hutto Residential Venue: Salve Regina University, Newport Concerts/Services Venue: Emmanuel Church, Newport Course Fees: $575, not including music. RSCM members receive a $25 discount Contact: Priscilla Rigg, Course Manager, or Allen J. Hill, Registrar, rscmri@emmanuelnewport.org
Courses for Young Adults
NEW! WESTMINSTER CHOIR COLLEGE/RSCM COURSE
Participants: Rising high school juniors & seniors, college students, and adult observers Dates: June 27–July 4, 2010 Music Director: Joe Miller Organist: Ken Cowan Residential Venues: Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N.J., and New York City Concerts/Services Venues: The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City Course Fees: $750 for participants, $225 for adult observers. RSCM members receive a $25 discount. 2 graduate credits are also available for an additional $500 Contact: Kevin Radtke, Coordinator of RSCM America and Sacred Music at Westminster, 609.921.7100 ext. 8277 oroffice@rscmamerica.org
Also in North America
MONTREAL COURSE – 50th Anniversary Year!
Participants: 40 boys, age 10–18, and 25 adults Dates: August 1–8, 2010 Music Director: Malcolm Archer Organist: Patrick Wedd Residential Venue: Sedbergh School, Montebello, Quebec, Canada Concerts/Services Venue: Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, Quebec Course Fees: $690, American or Canadian. Includes an anniversary polo shirt Contact: Larry Tremsky, Executive Director, 516.746.2956 ext. 18 ormbcc.canada@yahoo.com More Information:www.mbcc.ca
HOMILIES
A
Sermon for the Final Evensong of the First Annual Rocky Mountain
RSCM Course for Girls in Denver, Colorado
"
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be
always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our
redeemer." Amen.
We gather here
this evening, continuing the tradition of evensong that goes back
hundreds of years in this Anglican form, and much earlier still
in its basic elements and motivations. For people have always felt
the urge to say their prayers in the evening, in every time and
culture and place, to thank God for the blessings of the day, and
to ask God’s protection for the coming night.
Tonight is not
only the day’s end, but also the completion of a remarkable
week for the girls and adults in our inaugural Rocky Mountain course
as part of the Royal School of Church Music. A lot of work has gone
into making this week a success – work by the staff, and considerable
work by the girls and adult singers, who have maintained a demanding
schedule of rehearsal.
This is an auspicious
start for a program that I believe will thrive here for many years,
drawing young and not as young deeper into the life of faith through
music.
What happens
over the course of a week like this is really the building of a
community. In hard work, prayer, music making, and fellowship together,
a collection of individuals from all over the country and from many
and varied backgrounds is forged into a community. And what is the
final act of this community, before it disperses back to the other
communities from which it came?
A culmination,
a final act of praise, not for itself, but for God. In this final
evensong, we take everything we have made together - the music,
now polished, that contains all our experiences, our joys and sadnesses,
that utters the inutterable - and we give it away. We give it away,
with all of your prayers, joined with us silently and aloud, give
it away to God, the sweetest source from which all we are and have
comes.
What a countercultural
act this is. In a society which values individualism and accumulating
– getting things and holding onto them, white-knuckled, for
dear life, we make our common prayer and praise to God, an offering
of thanksgiving for all God has done for us, expecting nothing in
return.
Like the beautiful
Buddhist mandalas made, painstakingly, in sand of many colors, only
to be swept away at their completion, our evening song will remain
only in our memory. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name
be the glory.
We do this not
because God needs our prayers, any more than God needed Gideon’s
meat and cakes and broth, but because, like Gideon, we need to offer
them.
When God received
Gideon’s offering, Gideon knew that God was listening to him,
and that God would be with him. Gideon was the least in his family,
of the weakest clan in Manasseh. But he knew that with God, all
things were possible, even leading the people of Israel out of the
hand of mighty Midian.
We pray and
give praise to God, in harmony with the chorus of heaven, to remind
ourselves that God is still with us, to this very day. We ask God’s
grace that what we sing with our lips, we may believe in our hearts,
and show forth in our lives.
And when we
do this, when this community, both ancient and new, gathers to worship
God in song, we experience no less than a glimpse of the kingdom
of God.
Jesus built
his own community of followers in his own day, coming up to Philip
and to others, and saying, simply, “follow me.” And
they did, and invited others, like Nathaniel, to do so as well,
leaving all they had behind to follow him, to come and see what
this Jesus had to say. This group of disciples, from all over, with
different gifts and challenges, grew into a community around Jesus.
It was a community
with wild ideas, like the mighty being put down, and all being equal
in dignity, the proud scattered, the hungry fed, and the humble
and meek exalted. They believed this was what God wanted, and what
God’s kingdom would be like.
And they believed
that by not holding onto their lives too tightly, but by giving
them, all their gifts and talents, for the glory of God, this radical
vision just right, just might come closer to reality.
We are the descendants
in faith of those disciples, and we join with them in praying that
God’s kingdom of justice and mercy will come.
We give all
that we have to thank God for what God has graciously given us,
and we pray for God’s love, wider than any sea, to be with
us this night, and for evermore. Amen.
The Reverend
Canon Poulson Reed
Saint John’s Cathedral (Denver, CO)
Rocky Mountain RSCM 2005 Course Chaplain