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St Philips worship is online
Information and Candidate Brief
We are looking for a Director of Music - Please apply NOW
Key background
St Philip’s has a liturgical and broadly catholic worship style. We are a diverse and friendly community and we like to enjoy our worship together. We have a single main weekly service with live music, 10:30 on Sundays, plus occasional additional services with music. There are additional regular weekday services which are said or use recorded music.
St Philip’s has a choir containing both paid choral scholars and members of the congregation (in roughly equal numbers). We work mainly in the classical church music tradition but occasionally experiment with other approaches.
Approximately once a month, there is a choral Eucharist with a usually Latin mass setting, and we sing a Psalm with a similar frequency. On other Sundays, we sing a simpler setting. There is also a monthly all age service where the music is a little more informal. There is a Communion anthem each week.
Our aim is to make great music to enhance the worship and have fun doing it.
We have a fine 3 manual organ, originally built in 1848 by Gray and Davidson, conservatively enlarged by Hele in 1901 and moved to St Philip’s and impeccably restored by Peter Collins in 2003. We also have a Bechstein concert grand piano, which we believe was acquired in the 1960s.
There is a thriving fortnightly Thursday lunchtime recital series.
We have a few weddings (typically, about 1-2 a year) and usually about 3-4 funerals each year in church.
We have a resident cat called Mattins. He is friendly (except towards mice).
Salary, holidays and appointment
The salary is £700 per month, including six weeks of paid annual leave. More may be available for an exceptional candidate. There is no uplift to the salary for working on a Sunday, or on a public or bank holiday. St Philip’s routinely livestreams and video records services with music, and some recordings are published on our website. The base salary reflects this – there is no separate payment uplift.
The holiday entitlement will be six weeks per annum, including any holiday taken on Sundays, public or bank holidays. In relation to services, this is to be interpreted as the right to send a deputy at our expense for 6 Sunday services per year plus one of the 12 extra services mentioned below.
The appointment would be subject to child protection checks, a medical questionnaire and references.
Services
To direct and rehearse the choir, and to play the organ and piano at regular Sunday services at St Philip’s. To provide music before and after the service, hymns, accompaniment to anthems and incidental music, improvising when necessary.
Similarly, to provide music for 12 additional services within the liturgical year. The current list of services is: Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday (3 hours), Easter Vigil (currently about 5:45 am on the Sunday morning), Ascension, Blessing of the Animals, All Saints/All Souls, Christmas Carol Service, Longest Night Service, Christmas Eve Crib service, Christmas Midnight Eucharist, Christmas Day.
To be available for occasional services such as services for our Church Primary School, weddings and funerals, sometimes at short notice, or to arrange a substitute to be available. Reasonable fees will be paid.
To arrange cover organists for services during six weeks of paid annual leave.
Preparation and Planning
To plan hymns and anthems for services, working with the Vicar and Church Manager.
To train the choir; and to plan and lead rehearsals for services (currently 9.30 am on Sundays).
To organise the fortnightly Thursday lunchtime music recitals.
To spend time with the children of the church, enabling them to make a musical contribution to the worship and to use music in Sunday School.
To encourage and enable the whole congregation to play a full part in the church’s music.
Development
To inspire and lead the choir – both the Choral Scholars (who are funded through a donation, restricted for that purpose) and the members of the congregation
To inspire members of the congregation to join and remain in the choir.
To keep the church’s musical repertoire under review, expanding the range of both choir and congregation. To ensure that the church’s repertoire includes: a) both well-tested traditional church music and the best of more recent and contemporary music; b) music which stretches the best singers in the church; as well as music which most of the congregation can join in with.
To work with the local school and other local organisations to develop musical outreach.
Musical resources
To monitor the condition of the organ and piano and inform the Vicar (and others as appropriate) of any need for maintenance and repair, when necessary.
To liaise as necessary with organ builders, piano tuners etc.
To ensure the church has a well-managed music library, building on existing resources.
Reporting arrangements & accountability
To report to the Vicar and have regular review meetings;
To attend the Parochial Church Council for its annual discussion of the church’s music and to prepare a report for that meeting;
To prepare a contribution for the church’s Annual Report.
To apply
Please email a CV detailing relevant experience, as well as a cover letter, by 17 July 2026 to the Church office at admin@specr.org. For an informal discussion please contact the outgoing Director of Music, Laurence Long on music@specr.org.
Candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.
St Philip's Church, Earls Court Road, London W8 6QH
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