THE Llandaff Cathedral Music Foundation is having to postpone its launch event on 30 September, after the Charity Commission turned down its bid for charitable status.

The Foundation is being established to support, develop, and expand the activities of the cathedral’s music department, and to enhance its status as a hub for music-making and education. The opera singer Elizabeth Atherton, who teaches at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and has sons in the choir, was appointed its executive in October last year.

Its stated aim is to secure the future of the existing music department and cathedral choir, led by Stephen Moore, while creating further scholarships and widening access for more people to be involved in music-making.

Its plans to take music education into local schools will enable it to reach children who might otherwise be without it, and create more opportunities for them at the cathedral through new music groups: “To put Llandaff firmly on the map, both locally and nationally, as an arts centre of the highest calibre . . . alongside its primary role as a historic place of worship.”

The Charity Commission said that it had been unable to incorporate the organisation at present, and has asked the Foundation to re-submit its bid. The Dean, the Very Revd Richard Peers, is away at present, but has issued a statement: the only response at this stage. It reads: “The Chapter of Llandaff Cathedral are seeking to expand our provision of music. We made an application to the Charity Commission to establish a separate charity to administer this. The Charity Commission’s view was that there was not enough difference between the Cathedral’s charitable aims and those proposed for the new charity.

“The Charity Commission has asked that we re-submit our bid. We are now in discussion about when and how to do this. All the work planned for expanding the excellent music at the Cathedral will continue. We are grateful to all our musicians for their service to our common life.”