b'Scott Phillips (Talbot 2019) takes on The Italian JobA former Ellesmere College student has landed the prestigious role of Choir Director at St Marks English Churchin Italy!area, especially the American colleges, but Covid has brought about unprecedented challenges. It has meant we are having to rebuild the choir again because so many of the choristers had to leave the country earlier in the year, particularly the Americans and a lot of British. We have had to start recruiting and Im keen to look more locally so if something like Covid were to happen again the church choir wouldnt be so decimated. September 6th was the first service the church has had for six months and meant completely starting things from scratch and building it back up again. The choir started with zero, now we have six and will be built up to about 20 as a standard number but the choir here can have anything up to 40 singers.Day to day, I spend quite a bit of time in the office planning events, we are looking at doing outreach to the local schools, including the International School. My goal is to try and draw more locals into the church, its obviously a very Catholic tradition out here and we are unique in that we are a C of E church in the middle of Florence.My hopes for the future are in many ways to carry on doing what Im doing now, directing music, whether in churches or possibly theatre. I love the choral tradition that church music Scott Phillips, 20, from St Davids, Pembrokeshire, leftbrings and my placement year at St Marks can only help me Ellesmere as a student last year before returning on anachieve my goals.internship. His role as Choir Director in Florence will last a year after which he will take his place at York University. I was a chorister at St Davids Cathedral for a number of years so the British choral tradition is in my blood. I also visited Italy on a choir tour with Ellesmere. I saw the position advertised on Church Times, applied, had a phone interview in March, then got offered the job and started on September 1st - I really love it out here. The position at St Marks is the most important role Ive had to date, I head up the department, have two organists and the choir. Its a great deal of responsibility but thoroughly enjoyable, and means I have needed to defer my place at York University until next year.I left Ellesmere in July 2019 as a student but then went back as an intern and spent most of the last year working there - it was quite a strange thing to leave as a student and then go back as a member of staff. I was also the Organ Scholar at Shrewsbury Abbey from October last year through to this July. I like to think that I take every opportunity thrown at me to get as much experience under my belt as I can.The church plays a leading role in offering opportunities and often has intern positions for post graduate students, with a close connection with Cambridge University. St Marks wants to give students the opportunity to push themselves but also to have the experience of being able to run a department - not something many people get the chance to do. The church usually draws its singers from university campuses in the Ellesmere College Newsletter Michaelmas 202019'