The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools
In 2024, The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools organization is running two week-long courses. The first will be held in London, Ontario and the second in Vancouver, BC.
The two courses are known as CRMSS Ontario 2024 and CRMSS Pacific 2024. Offering these two week-long courses as equal partners after many years of only offering a week's course in Ontario is part of our long term strategy to bring high quality opportunities to perform Renaissance music to as many Canadians as possible.
The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools began in 2018. Taking into account a missed year in 2020, CRMSS Ontario 2024 will be the sixth time a CRMSS course has taken place in London, Ontario.
CRMSS Pacific 2024 marks the first time our full-week format will be brought to the Lower Mainland in BC. We are so excited to bring the full CRMSS experience to the west coast.
What is a CRMSS course?
Aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at undergraduate students, graduates, and young professional musicians, courses run by The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools organization (known as "CRMSS courses") are dedicated to the study and performance of Renaissance polyphonic vocal and instrumental music at the highest levels.
Come and learn from internationally acknowledged specialist tutors from the worlds of performance and academia, and be immersed in this magnificent music for a week. It will be an intensive period of rehearsal and performance, both liturgically and in concert, all with an emphasis on quality in performance.
CRMSS Ontario 2024 Dates:
Saturday, May 18th
to
Sunday, May 26th
2024
CRMSS Pacific 2024 Dates:
Sunday, August 4th
to
Sunday, August 11th
2024
CRMSS Ontario 2024 will take place at
New St. James Presbyterian Church
in London, Ontario
CRMSS Pacific 2023 is being hosted by
St. Helen's Parish
in Burnaby, BC
Applications
Back to topApplications for our CRMSS 2024 courses are now open! Please click here to begin the process online.
The application deadlines are below:
CRMSS Ontario 2024:
Thursday, February 1st 2024
CRMSS Pacific 2024:
Wednesday, May 1st, 2024
Please submit your application earlier than the deadlines if you can, so we can get to know you and help you through the process.
If you would like more information, you can chat live with us via Facebook Messenger by clicking the red button in the bottom right corner of any page on this website. Please ask us any questions you might have! You'll be chatting to a real person, not a bot! If we're not available immediately, we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Is a CRMSS course for me?
While the courses are open to everyone aged 18 and over, successful applicants will have a high level of sight reading confidence and some experience with small ensemble music making. For singers, being comfortable working entirely unaccompanied is important, and any experience working in small, one-per-part ensembles will set you up well for your CRMSS experience. Some familiarity with Renaissance repertoire will also be an asset, though we welcome people who are new to this music as well. Current and recent university music students are especially encouraged to apply, though a major in vocal studies is not a requirement, nor is the completion of formal musicological study.
Our courses are very heavily focussed on performance; we encounter academic, liturgical, and stylistic questions primarily through our practical engagement with the music itself. All that is required is an open mind and an affinity for collaborative ensemble music making.
More Information
Back to topCost
For Singers:
The course fees for our CRMSS 2024 courses are:
Full Price
$650
Student Rate
$450
We pride ourselves on keeping the fee absolutely as low as possible while offering a world-class experience.
The fee covers more than 50 hours of ensemble and individual coaching over the course of 8 or 9 days, participation in lectures and panel discussions led by our resident musicologist tutors, attendance and participation in masterclasses, private recitals, church services, and public concerts, and much more.
Participants at all our CRMSS courses are welcome to keep the scores they use, many of which will be newly edited specifically for each course.
We ask successful applicants to secure their place on a course by providing a deposit, a portion of the entire course fee. This will be counted against the total course fee, the remainder of which will be due later.
The deposit of $200 is due as soon as you receive confirmation from us that your application has been successful. We aim to send out our acceptance letters a few weeks after each course's application deadline. The remainder of the fee is due a few weeks before the course begins.
Once fees are paid, CRMSS reserves the right to limit any refund, taking into account the individual circumstances of a participant's cancellation.
For Instrumentalists:
We offer a range of options for instrumentalists, across both our courses in 2024.
CRMSS Ontario 2024 Lute Day
$125
CRMSS Pacific 2024 Keyboard Day
$150
CRMSS Pacific 2024 Viol Weekend
$225
CRMSS Pacific 2024 Lute Day
$150
For more information about each of our courses, please read their description pages:
Accommodation
Accommodation costs are not included in the course fee. We can, however, arrange accommodation for participants who would chose from a range of options.
Participants may also arrange and pay for accommodation entirely on their own, but transport between your accommodation and the course venues will not be supplied by CRMSS.
Travel
Arranging and paying for your travel to a CRMSS coures is your responsibility. For those of you who arrive in one of our CRMSS host cities by public transport, once you get here we will make sure you get to where you need to go on the first day. We can also help you get back to a nearby airport, or the train or bus station, after the course has finished.
Previous CRMSS Reports
Back to topAfter each course, Founder and Artistic Director Greg Skidmore prepares a report, with input from the tutor team, giving you the opportunity to get a feel for what happened. Please give them a read, and get in touch if you would like to know more!
Download a course poster
Back to topPlease download and print off one or both of these PDF posters to advertise our 2024 courses at your university, church, or other institution and help spread the word!
The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools is a federally registered Canadian charity with Charitable Number 762652873RR0001.
