InHarmony

Richard Hubbard

The InHarmony project was set up in 2017 by St Edmundsbury Cathedral, with the aim of enriching and resourcing music for worship at the cathedral and in churches across the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Richard Hubbard was appointed as St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Music Development Director.​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​Richard is also a Lecturer in Music and Worship at London School of Theology, is Artistic Director of Cantus Firmus Trust - a locally-based Charitable Incorporated Organisation that supports music for worship through an inter-church choir.

​​​​​​​The cathedral is very grateful for the support of the Pratt Green Trust in enabling the work of InHarmony to continue. In the past year Richard’s work has included:

  • Developing and leading a Candlemas service, making use of creative music and liturgy, for a church in Woodbridge
  • Organising an “Engaging All Ages in Worship” workshop and service for parishes across the Diocese, with engageworship.org
  • Leading “A Spectrum of Song” workshop day for churches in the west Suffolk area, exploring a range of repertoire for small churches. There are plans to repeat this in the east of the county.
  • Directing and arranging music for the Diocesan Climate Service at the cathedral, involving an inter-church choir and local musicians.
  • Devising and leading a series of Compline services for Ordinands, demonstrating creative use of words and music.
  • Leading two Pilgrimage of Song events, where singers walk a six-mile countryside route, sing a service at churches along the way. These events are highly popular, and requested by several benefices. The repertoire is chosen to represent a wide variety of styles, and to be something people can use in their own churches where appropriate.
  • Leading music for the weekly All Age Eucharist at the cathedral (started in 2021), which serves as a model for parishes to develop their own family worship.

In addition Richard responds to requests for consultation and advice from churches around the Diocese.

In 2019 Richard led a major project in Ipswich entitled ‘Messy Messiah’. This was a performance of Part One of Handel’s Messiah, with choirs from primary schools joining with a 50-voice adult choir and orchestra. Richard arranged the music so that the children could sing parts of the chorus numbers. “Mr Handel”, in full costume, visited each school as part of a series of assemblies written to introduce the children to the music and its Christian message. The school also provided art, dance and drama, which was incorporated into the performance. The project is being repeated at the cathedral in November of this year, partnering with 10 local schools.

In 2020 and 2021 Richard produced a series of videos of hymns, songs and complete services for churches to use in online worship, engaging local singers and musicians in recording. Originally intended as a response to lockdown restrictions, these have continued to be used, not only in Suffolk, but much further afield via the Inharmony Youtube channel.