Wednesdays at 1.15pm Free Admission, Retiring Collection

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 

No recitals in August and September


22 March: Michael Stephen-Jones (Organ Scholar, St Paul's Cathedral)


Nicolaus Bruhns (1665-1697)
- Praeludium in E minor ‘Kleine’

Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
- Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit  

Jeanne Landry (1922-2011)
- Hesychia

César Franck (1822-1890)
- Choral No 3 in A minor

Michael Stephens-Jones currently holds the Organ Scholarship at St Paul’s Cathedral, and has previously held similar positions at Guildford Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey, and the Dean Close Foundation, Cheltenham. From 2018-2021 Michael spent three years at Selwyn College, Cambridge, graduating with a Starred First in Music. During his time there, he served as Organ Scholar, accompanying the choir, including for three broadcasts of Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3, several commercial recordings and on tour. In his final year he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists, gaining the Limpus prize, Dr F. J. Read prize, and Coventry Cathedral Recital Award for his performance. Following this, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Musicians’ Company, and now participates in their Young Artists’ Programme. Having won first prize in the senior section of the 2016 London Organ Competition, Michael has given recitals widely, with recent highlights including Westminster Abbey for the 2021 Summer Organ Festival Young Artist Platform, and the 2022 Three Choirs Festival.

 


29 March – Polina Sosnina

Temple Music Foundation Concert: Dupré: Symphonie-Passion Op 23

4 Apr 2023, 13:00 – 14:00

Richard Pinel organ

Grace Davidson soprano

This great organ symphony depicting the life of Christ began life in 1921 as an improvisation on the Grand Court Organ inside the John Wanamaker Department Store in Philadelphia! Dupré's improvisation was based on four melodies suggested by audience members including the Easter chants Stabat mater dolorosa and Adoro te devote.

In today’s performance – the first lunchtime concert in our Holy Week Festival – organist Richard Pinel is joined by soprano Grace Davidson, who sings the chants on which this mesmerizing work is based.

The performance lasts approximately 40 minutes

For more information and booking please click here.

 

Concert

Watch Again!

15 March: Dewi Rees (Westminster Abbey)

JS Bach (1685-1750)
- Prelude in C BWV 547

Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
- Romanza 'The White Rock'

Judith Bingham (b. 1952)
- St Bride, assisted by angels

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
- Sonata in B flat

Dewi Rees is the Organ Scholar of Westminster Abbey, where he shares the playing for services with the Sub-Organist and Assistant Organist, and assists in the training of the Choristers and the running of the Music Department.   

Dewi read Music at Jesus College, Cambridge, where, as Organ Scholar and then Assistant Organist, he performed in services, concerts and recordings with the College’s two choirs. He moved to St Albans Cathedral in 2020 to spend two years as Organ Scholar where, in addition to assisting in the daily worship of the Cathedral, he performed at the St Albans International Organ Festival and featured on CD recordings in an organ duet by Elizabeth Lutyens with Tom Winpenny, and with St Albans Cathedral Choir. 

Thomas Allery is passionate about teaching and encouraging students to develop a range of musical skills from a young age. He has created numerous educational resources which link performance with musical theory, aural awareness, keyboard understanding, and harmony to encourage the development of a well-rounded musician. He is regularly developing new educational materials which encourage an understanding of musical theory through the repertoire that students are performing.

He is organ tutor at City of London School and Radley College, and teaches basso continuo at the Royal College of Music.

Having studied at Oxford University and the Royal College of Music, Thomas recently completed an Artist Diploma in harpsichord at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with James Johnstone and Carole Cerasi. From 2014 – 19 Thomas was Director of chapel music at Worcester College, Oxford and was also Assistant Organist of Magdalen College. Thomas is in regular demand as a continuo player on organ and harpsichord, for chamber music and orchestral repertoire. He is the regular continuo player of award winning chamber ensemble, Ensemble Hesperi. With this group, he has performed at numerous leading UK festivals, presenting the programme ‘The Pheasant’s Eye’ which showcases Scottish Baroque Music with highland dance. In 2014-15, Thomas was a Junior Fellow in Harpsichord and Continuo at the Royal College of Music and was a Britten-Pears young artist as a continuo player, performing Bach cantatas under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe at Snape Maltings, in 2019. He is currently undertaking research into historical continuo treatises from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and exploring how they can be used in keyboard education today.

Jeremy is the Assistant Director of Music and Sub-organist at Rochester Cathedral, where he accompanies and conducts the Cathedral choir for some of the daily services. He additionally spent two terms as Acting Director of Music, where he had oversight of all musical provision at the Cathedral including services to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Jeremy is also Director of the Cathedral’s Voluntary Choir, Assistant Director of Music to the Rochester Choral Society, and an organ tutor at The King’s School, Rochester.

Simon Hogan is the Sub-Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral, a post which he combines with being Organist to the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and a portfolio of freelance work in and around London.

Simon was a chorister at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, and it was during this time that he started learning the piano and organ, developing a passion for cathedral music which has stayed with him to this day.  Following organ scholarships at Bristol and Salisbury Cathedrals, he moved to London in 2008 to study organ performance at the Royal College of Music, where he subsequently graduated with first class honours.  During his final year at the RCM Simon was Organ Scholar at St Paul’s Cathedral, where he regularly accompanied and directed the world-famous choir, and gave recitals on the renowned Willis organ.  In 2012 Simon moved to Southwell, Nottinghamshire, where he spent seven years as Assistant Director of Music at Southwell Minster.  Here he directed the Minster’s girls’ choir and the Minster Chorale, and played the organ for all services, recordings, tours and broadcasts.  

As a soloist Simon has given recitals in venues across the UK, including the cathedrals of Durham, Hereford and Westminster, The Albert Hall, Nottingham, and Rochdale Town Hall.  Recent notable performances include the complete organ symphonies of Louis Vierne in a single day, the première of a new work for eight organs and electronics by Wolfgang Mitterer for Karlsruhe’s 300th anniversary, and a performance of the Poulenc Organ Concerto with the Orchestra of the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre, Moscow, directed by Jan Latham-Koenig. 

Simon has studied organ performance with Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin, Daniel Cook, David Graham, Robert Quinney and Colin Walsh. He studied conducting with Paul Brough and Peter Stark and harpsichord with Terrance Charlston.  Simon is the principal organist for JAM - an organisation which commissions and performs new music for brass, organ and choir by leading contemporary composers - and as such he has enjoyed working with some of the country’s finest ensembles, including the BBC Singers, the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Gesualdo Six and Onyx Brass.