History of RSCM UK
The School of English Church Music
On the initiative of Sir Sydney Nicholson, then Organist of Westminster Abbey, the School of English Church Music (SECM) was inaugurated at a meeting in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey held on 6th December 1927, the Feast of St Nicolas. It was to consist of a training college for church musicians (the College of St Nicolas) and an association of affiliated churches who committeed themselves to attaining high standards.
The school was housed at Buller's Wood, Chiselhurst, Kent and continued until closure was forced at the outbreak of war in 1939, when most students were called up for military service. During those first ten years major choral festivcals were held triennially in London (1930 at the Royal Albert Hall, 1933 and 1936 at the Crystal Palace) with the number of affiliated choirs rising to 1300 worldwide.
Throughout the war Sir Sydney continued his itinerant teaching at diocesan and parish levels from a base at St Michael's College, Tenbury and then from Leamington Spa.
The Royal School of Church Music
In 1945, by command of King George VI, the School of English Church Music (SECM), which had been founded in 1927 on the initiative of Sir Sydney Nicholson, organist of Westminster Abbey, became the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM). Canterbury Cathedral allowed the School to function within the precincts of the cathedral, and th eCollege of St Nicolas re-opened there in January 1946. By 1954 the RSCM and the College of St Nicolas had moved to Addington Palace near Croydon, the former country residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury. Dr Gerald Knight as Director and the Rev. Cyril Taylor as Warden had responsibility for the educational work of the RSCM.
In 1973 Gerald Knight was succeeded by Lionel Dakers and he, in turn, by Harry Bramma in 1989. The College of St Nicolas was closed in 1974 and the RSCM then concentrated on short courses and on work in the regions with new structures of voluntary committees. The membership increased, with a peak of almost 10,000 affiliates in 1980.
In 1996 the RSCM moved to Cleveland Lodge, near Dorking, Surry, the former home of the organist Lady Susi Jeans, and then to Sarum College, Salisbury in 2006.
The present Director General, Lindsay Gray, was appointed in 2008 succeeding John Harper who had succeeded Harry Bramma in 1998. It is of interest that Sir Sydney Nicholson's father, Sir Charles Nicholson, was the first Chancellor of the University of Sydney. RSCM Australia remains an active member of the international Royal School of Church Music.
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