Organ and Choral Scholars
The Organ and Choral Scholarships have steadily grown since 2010. This has been made possible by the generosity of the trust together with the Young Organ Scholars Trust, the Friends of Cathedral Music and the Ouseley Charity.
Since starting the organ scholarships in 2010, Dr Tim Williams has established a pattern of funding which sees the trust subsiding tuition in the first stages of training. Those who show promise move on to scholarships provided by the RSCM for 2 years and some have an opportunity for a fully funded scholarship from the Young Organ Scholars Trust.
We currently have seven young organ scholars being tutored by either Dr Tim Williams or Rosemary Field. The organ scholars are accessing funding from different sources, including from the Dr Martin Clarke Young Organ Scholars’ Trust and the Royal College of Organists. We continue to make excellent use of the digital organs at two schools – the King’s School and KGGS; many of the scholars who attend KGGS are receiving their regular lessons at school. The organ scholars are working at different levels ranging between ABRSM Grade 3 and Grade 8.
Former organ scholars during Dr Williams’s tenure include Joseph Beech (currently sub-Organist of Durham Cathedral) and Matilda Johnston, who is studying the organ at the Royal Academy of Music.
Organ and
Joseph was Organ Scholar at St. Wulfram's for 2 years, having been a chorister in the choir before. The trust subsidised his organ tuition and in September 2012 he came to the end of his secondary education at the King's School, Grantham and moved on to the prestigious appointment as Organ Scholar to St. George's Chapel, Windsor to continue his organ studies prior to going to music college. The trust wished him well at his last choral evensong on 22nd July 2012 when it presented him with the Barenreiter edition of the 'Complete Organ Works' by J.S. Bach. On leaving The Royal Academy of Music, where he studied organ, he became Assistant Master of the Music at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh. He is currently principal accompanist to the cathedral choir at Durham Cathedral. He continues to serve as Vice-President of the Edinburgh Society of Organists.
Matilda Johnson - Organ Scholar
Organ scholarships are continuing to thrive with the next generation emerging as competent organists. Matilda is our senior Organ Scholar and is sponsored by the Dr Martin Clarke Young Organ Scholars Trust. She has worked hard to win a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music for a Foundation Year studying Organ. She is now beginning to play for services having played very successfully for our 2019 nine lessons and carols service. To see more about this service please click here to be directed to the Choirs Facebook page.
Samuel Davie - Choral Scholar
Samuel Davie was a chorister at St Wulframs from the age of seven. He remains the youngest chorister at the church to win the RSCM Gold Award and has served as Head Boy Chorister. Following vocal change he held Choral Scholarships supported by the church and Philip Lank Trust. In Autumn 2023 Samuel left Grantham to study music at Durham University where he has also been awarded a Choral Scholarship to sing in Durham Cathedral Choir.
St Wulfram's Youth Choir
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St Wulfram’s Church runs a highly successful youth choir initiative for teenage singers. This ensemble is currently 20-strong, featuring sopranos, altos, tenors and basses aged between 13 and 18. The ensemble was formed to keep choristers singing beyond vocal change and graduating from the boys’ and girls’ choirs. In time it has become an elite ensemble for teenagers, meeting on Mondays after school to rehearse, and independently singing choral evensong on Fridays in termtime at 5.15pm. The members also sing with the full church choir in Sunday services. The choir has sung in many recitals and concerts, and is a frequent guest choir at Harlaxton College. Highlights in recent memory have included a concert at Little St Mary’s Church Cambridge during the choir’s Ely 2022 residency, as well as the youth choir’s collaborations with the award-winning choir, the Gesualdo Six. In February 2023, the youth choir is taking a mini-tour, singing by invitation alongside Selwyn College Choir, Cambridge, and the next day singing Choral Evensong in the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral.