We are very grateful to our performers for giving their time and skills for free. Please give generously to the retiring collection to help cover the expenses of the series. Thank you.
All the recitals will be live-streamed on the Church's YouTube Channel. Please see below for the direct links
Wednesdays at 1.15 pm
12 February - Sebastian Johansson
19 February - Julian Thomas
26 February - students from Merchant Taylors School
5 March - James Borrie
12 March - Charles Andrews
19 March - Jonathan Lilley
26 March - Thomas Allery
2 April - NO RECITAL
9 April - Charles Andrews (last recital of the term)
Alfred Hollins (1865-1942)
- Concert Overture no. 2 in C minor
John Ireland (1879-1962) arr. Alec Rowley (1892-1958)
- Elegy (from A Dowland Suite)
Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)
- Te Deum, op.11
Michael Waldenby (b. 1953)
- Adagio espressivo, op.11
Otto Olsson (1879-1964)
- Preludium & Fuga in D sharp minor, op.56
Sebastian Johansson (b. 1997) born in Jönköping, Sweden, began his musical career early. After high school, he was admitted to the Academy of Music in Malmö, where he studied organ with Hans Hellsten and Carl Adam Landström and completed a bachelor’s degree in organ and church music. He also completed a master's degree in organ at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, where he studied with Johannes Landgren, Mikael Wahlin and Stefan Therstam.
Since 2023 he has been the lead organist and Director of Music at St. Mary’s church in Sigtuna, near Stockholm, where he has the main responsibility for extensive music and concert activities, including a weekly organ recital series. He also leads the St. Mary's Motett Choir which annually performs major choral works. He also has a newly started men’s choir focused on Gregorian music.
In addition to his work at St. Mary’s, he performs regularly as an organ soloist in Sweden and abroad. Since the spring of 2023, he has been the vice president of Stockholm's International Organ Festival - OrganSpace.
Thomas Allery took up the position of Director of Music at Temple Church in September 2023, having been Assistant Director since 2019. In addition to his duties at the church, he is in demand as a harpsichordist, organist and director.
As a Harpsichordist, Thomas is active as a soloist and continuo player, frequently performing with several groups. He is a founding member of the award-winning Ensemble Hesperi, a group known for their inventive programming and for their pioneering approach to 18th century Scottish Baroque repertoire.
Having initially studied music at Oxford University, and then at the Royal College of Music, Thomas was later awarded a scholarship to complete his studies as a harpsichordist on the Artist Diploma programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with James Johnstone and Carole Cerasi. His teachers have included Stephen Farr, William Whitehead, Margaret Phillips and Terence Charlston. In 2016, he was supported by the Eric Thompson Trust to study with Erwin Wiersinga at the Martinikirk in Groningen, and in 2019 he was a Britten Pears young artist, performing a programme of Bach cantatas as a continuo player with Phillipe Herreweghe. Thomas has held posts at Worcester and Magdalen Colleges in Oxford, and at St Marylebone Parish Church.
Thomas is organist of the church of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, where he plays for ceremonies for several of the City of London’s ancient Livery companies. His repertoire interests on this instrument are eclectic, and he has recently made a film, available on You Tube, featuring unjustly forgotten 18th-century composers of City churches.
Education, creating opportunity and teaching are at the heart of Thomas’ work. He is in demand as a teacher, teaching basso continuo at the Royal College of Music, and organ at City of London School and Radley College. As an active researcher, Thomas is currently working on continuo treatises from the 17th and 18th centuries, assessing their pedagogical logic and methods, and exploring how they can be used in keyboard education today.
Charles Andrews is Organist of the Temple Church, London and professor of organ and Organ co-ordinator at the Royal College of Music. Charles studied at the RCM with David Graham, Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin, John Barstow and John Blakely with the aid of a Douglas & Kyra Downie Award, achieving the Harold Darke Memorial Prize for organ.
Before joining the Temple Church, Charles was Associate Director of Music at All Saints, Margaret Street in the West End of London from 2011-16. Recently four live performances with the Temple Church Choir have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, including the first performance of Carmina tempore viri by Kenneth Hesketh (nominated for an Ivor Novello Award) in 2021. Plans for 2024 include recording works associated with Henry Walford Davies and George Thalben-Ball (former Organists of the Temple Church).
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