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The RSJ Fund is named after Dr. Robert Sherlaw-Johnson.

Robert (himself a noted composer) had attended Music Week for over forty years and was the Director of the week for 25 years. After his retirement as Director, he remained an important member of the committee and played a crucial role as the Director of Liturgical Music until his death in 2000. The RSJ fund was set up after his death to fund the development of new compositions.

He was born May 21, 1932, in Sunderland, United Kingdom and died November 3, 2000 whilst ringing bells at the historic Oxfordshire tower of Appleton. Religion was a significant influence on Robert’s compositions and he wrote a lot of liturgical music for performance at Spode Music Week. Just a few months before his death, Spode had performed the premiere of his Millenium Mass at the 47th Spode Music Week. For a number of years, the RSJ fund has supported the prize money for the RSJ competition. The competition takes place during the Spode Music Week and it selects two winners (in both junior and adult categories) from small-scale composition pieces submitted for consideration by a panel of judges. These competitions have meant the creation of many varied works. The type of composition is announced at the start of each year and is open to all past and present Music Week participants.

At present the Spode Committee has decided to suspend the competition whilst it looks at the possibility of commissioning a work from a professional composer for it’s forthcoming 60th anniversary week (2013).