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The Ouseley Church Music Trust

Ouseley Church Music Trust grants

Grants to promote and maintain high standards of choral worship in the Church of England, the Church in Wales and the Church of Ireland. They cover musicians, choral scholars, bursaries, junior choirs, choral outreach and development schemes, liturgical music, courses for church musicians, and means-tested help with cathedral choristers' school fees. Applications must come from an institution such as a cathedral, parish church, choir, choral foundation or choir school. Grants are modest (average £2,600), and there are two closing dates a year: 28 February and 30 June.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
Amount not specified
Deadline
133 days left
28 February
Effort
Moderate
full application with documents

Who can apply

  • Institutions within the Church of England, the Church in Wales or the Church of Ireland: usually a cathedral, choral foundation, parish church, choir or choir school (schools and colleges where the choral liturgy is sung are also covered)
  • All applications, including those for an individual chorister's fees, must come from the institution
  • Parents cannot apply directly, though they must complete a financial declaration
  • Individuals over 21 may apply only in exceptional cases, for help with courses
  • Applicants must provide audited or independently examined accounts and an Equal Opportunities Policy
  • Successful applicants are not normally funded again within two years

What it funds

Projects that clearly promote and maintain high standards of choral worship in the Church of England, the Church in Wales or the Church of Ireland, from innovative schemes to core costs. This covers:

  • Grants towards the costs of musicians, scholarships, bursaries and choral outreach or development schemes; the Trust welcomes applications to strengthen back rows and especially encourages imaginative projects to set up and maintain junior choirs
  • It also covers:
  • Means-tested help with the school fees of individual choristers at cathedrals and choral foundations (for up to two years)
  • Purchase of liturgical music
  • Courses for individuals and groups of church musicians, where an already acceptable standard will be enriched (organ tuition in some cases)
  • Where there is no choir school, chorister support costs including theory, instrumental and vocal tuition, travel and subsistence

Innovative projects such as outreach, and in exceptional cases music commissions, are also funded if they bear directly on high standards of choral worship.

No grant sizes are published; the Trust reports an average grant of £2,600 and 49 grants in 2025.

What it will not fund

  • Organs or any other musical instruments (including organ restoration)
  • Endowments or capital appeals
  • Building projects
  • Choir robes
  • Recordings
  • Furniture
  • Tours or visits
  • Retrospective projects, i.e. those already taken place or substantially completed by the closing date
  • Hymn books, psalters, or books of chants, hymns or psalms
  • General bursaries for musical children who are not choristers
  • Choral services outside the Church of England, Church in Wales and Church of Ireland (e.g. Roman Catholic cathedrals)
  • Further grants to successful applicants within two years (except school fees for different choristers)

How to apply

  1. Read the Trust's Procedures and Guidelines for Grant Applications
  2. Have an informal pre-application conversation with the Clerk, Neil Parsons (07912 696852, clerk@ouseleytrust.org.uk); the Trust encourages all applicants to do this
  3. Complete the official application form online on the Trust's website, or ask the Clerk for a copy
  4. Attach the required documents; for chorister school-fee applications, the parents or guardians complete the Declaration of Financial Position form and two references are sent at the same time
  5. Submit by the closing date: 28 February (spring trustee meeting) or 30 June (autumn trustee meeting)
  6. All applications are acknowledged; trustees decide at their meeting and aim to tell applicants the outcome within one week

Applications received after a closing date are carried forward to the next round.

All successful applicants except those funded for school fees or music purchases must send a written report after 12 months.

Have ready

  • Up-to-date audited or independently examined accounts of the applicant organisation
  • Details of the choir and the organist/musical director
  • Amount spent annually on all aspects of music provision (salaries, music purchase, instrument maintenance, music support costs, etc.)
  • Short description (up to 200 words) of the organisation's musical tradition and aspirations
  • Details of the scale and frequency of choral services and any music education outreach work
  • Statement of how the standard of music, and/or the frequency and scale of choral services, will be enhanced
  • Copy of the organisation's Equal Opportunities Policy
  • For chorister school fees: parents' Declaration of Financial Position form with verification of figures, the gross annual fees, and two references (one from the choral foundation's organist or choirmaster)

If appropriate, successful applicants may be asked for a certified safeguarding policy for children and vulnerable adults and details of the institution's charitable status.

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