The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools
The two Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools courses in 2024 have yet to be fully announced, but here are the confirmed dates:
CRMSS Ontario 2024
Saturday, May 18th
to
Sunday, May26th
CRMSS Pacific 2024
Sunday, August 4th
to
Sunday, August 11th
to
Sunday, May26th
to
Sunday, August 11th
Much of the information on this page and the rest of this website relates to our two 2023 courses, which took place in Burnaby, British Columbia and London, Ontario, both in May 2023. Our website will be updated in the coming days and weeks. Please check back often for all our updates.
If you wish to inquire about one of our two courses taking place in 2024, please get in touch.
You can also follow us on social media: fb.com/canrenmusss and twitter.com/canrenmusss
The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools is a federally registered charity in Canada. Please consider donating to us if you are able.
This year, for the first time, The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools is proud to be running two courses in one year. The first will be held in Vancouver and the second in London, Ontario.
We are very excited about this expansion of our offering. The two courses will be known as CRMSS Pacific 2023 and CRMSS Ontario 2023. This 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 2023 will be the fifth time CRMSS has taken place in London, Ontario.
CRMSS Pacific 2023 will be a shorter course, lasting a weekend. A slightly 'lighter' course, it will nonetheless feature the core activities that make CRMSS unique and offer participants a glimpse of what's to come. Our ambition is to run annual week-long courses on the west coast starting in 2024, alongside our continuing CRMSS Ontario courses.
What is a CRMSS course?
Aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at undergraduate students, graduates, and young professional musicians, The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools (CRMSS) 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 Pacific 2023 Dates:
Friday, May 5th
to
Sunday, May 7th
2023
CRMSS Ontario 2023 Dates:
Saturday, May 13th
to
Sunday, May 21st
2023
CRMSS Pacific 2023 is being hosted by
St. Helen's Parish, Burnaby
CRMSS Ontario 2023 is being hosted by
the Choral Music Department at
Applications
Back to topWe are no longer accepting applications to attend our two courses in 2023.
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 and ask us any questions you might have. If we're not available immediately, we will get back to you as soon as we can.
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.
These courses will be very heavily focussed on performance; we will 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
The course fees for our CRMSS 2023 courses are:
CRMSS Pacific 2023
$250
($150 for current students)CRMSS Ontario 2023
$525
(with some bursaries available)We pride ourselves on keeping the fee absolutely as low as possible while offering a world-class experience.
Participants at CRMSS Pacific 2023 will enjoy more than 15 hours of tuition over two and a half full days of music making. We will be performing at Mass at St. Helen's Parish on the morning of Sunday, May 7th and there will be many opportunities to work in small groups, hear lectures, and much more.
The fee for CRMSS Ontario 2023 will cover more than 45 hours of ensemble and individual coaching over the course of 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.
Participants at all our CRMSS courses are welcome to keep the scores they use, many of which will be newly edited specifically for CRMSS.
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. Once fees are paid, CRMSS reserves the right to limit any refund, taking into account the individual circumstances of a participant's cancellation.
Lutenists who attended CRMSS 2022 Lute Day paid a tuition fee of $125. Details of our lute offering at both our CRMSS courses in 2023 are still being finalised. You can find out more about Lute Day by reading our CRMSS Ontario 2023 course description page.
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 you 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 and some testimonials from participants, 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 topIf you would like to print off a PDF poster to advertise the summer schools at your university, church, or other institution, please download one below.
The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools is federally registered in Canada as a not-for-profit corporation. We have applied for federal charitable status and are awaiting the outcome of that application.
