About the Choral Evensong Trust

The Choral Evensong Trust is a registered charity (no. 1190208, since 1 July 2020), working to locate and promote Choral Evensong.

The Choral Evensong Trust's Key Aim:

To see an increase of attendance at Evensong services in all abbeys, cathedrals, chapels, churches, and minsters.

The Choral Evensong Trust's Three Pillars:

Choral Evensong:

1) is a unique British tradition, and an important part of our cultural heritage;
2) provides free music in the heart of local communities;
3) offers musical training and performance opportunities to young singers.

Who we are

Chair
Sian Ferguson

Trustees
Dr Ralph Allwood, MBE
Dr Guy Hayward
Dr Rupert Sheldrake
Owen McNeir, MCIOF MCIM FRSA

Who benefits?

The Choral Evensong Trust believes that everyone should know about, and have access to, high quality music and the benefits that it brings, including:

a greater understanding of and appreciation for art and culture, deepening a variety of interests and enriching a spiritual life;
an improved trust and cooperation through closer relationship and engagement with the local community, which helps combat isolation (particularly in the elderly);
reduced stress, improved sleep, greater happiness, and even reduction in chronic pain and an increase in life expectancy;
for musicians: enhanced life skills like discipline, listening, and teamwork, as well as improved academic results and life fulfilment for children and young people.

For further benefits please read Guy Hayward’s PhD on Choral Singing and Community

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Proven popularity

“Choral Evensong” has been broadcast by the BBC for nearly 90 years and claims to be the longest running radio outside broadcast in the world. A quarter of a million people listen to the two transmissions each week and invariably we receive many messages of appreciation for the beauty of the music and the timeless quality of the words.”
Stephen Shipley, BBC Senior Producer

What we do

This website was launched at the end of 2015 and, since then, has engaged with over 700 churches, chapels and cathedrals. Our work aims to bring new audiences - particularly children - into churches, primarily to experience Choral Evensong.

How we are doing it

Nationwide publicity and PR that have resulted in the following press
Investing in Tourist Information Website Partnerships, specifically: Visit London / Time Out London / Experience Oxford / Visit Cambridge
Hosting a number of Choral Evensong Receptions (Evensong followed by a drinks reception) for influential individuals within local communities, such as representatives of local schools, hotels, residents’ associations, universities, cultural societies, other religious denominations, chambers of commerce, the local tourist office and the county council, and have organised these at: The Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich; Queen's College, Cambridge; Westminster Abbey; Leicester Cathedral; Portsmouth Cathedral; Lancaster Priory; Southwell Minster; Christ Church, Southgate; St. John’s, New Alresford.
Increasing the organisation’s presence - and promotion of Choral Evensong - on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Organising a ‘Choir of the Month’ feature, that promotes choirs of the highest quality, and in particular those who webcast their Evensong recordings for anyone to listen to.
Facilitating a poster campaign to publicise Evensong more effectively in local communities. In 2018, this involved seed funding 12 choirs by paying for the designing, printing and delivery of 1000 A5 poster flyers customised for their choir to be distributed in their local area.
Launching an ‘Evensong for Schools’ campaign, and working with the Choir Schools Association to create a national online directory of school music outreach programmes that originate from the church choral tradition.
Working with Kathryn King to promote her ground-breaking Virtual Reality research into listeners' appreciation of Choral Evensong.

What your donation provides

Being largely a digitally-focused charity we spend our funds on website development and digital marketing to bring Evensong attendees (you!) and Evensong providers (the choir) the best website experience to discover and promote Evensong.

We also occasionally fund initiatives like Evensong Receptions, and campaigns with local schools to bring pupils to experience Evensong.