Worlds End Music

Welcome to Worlds End Music, an organisation set up to bring together local professional musicians with local music lovers.

FINALLY!!! Announcing our Christmas Concerts.

Thursday 14th December, 7pm, St Martin of Tours, Chelsfield. Christmas Bells!

And…..

Sunday, 17th December, 2pm, St Mary’s, Green Street Green. The Snowman!

St Mary’s Church, Worlds End Lane.

At last, Worlds End Music is back with a festive chord! It has been a mad, mad autumn. The post-covid musical world has fortunately for most, been busy and full of concerts, meaning there has been so much less time to devote to other pursuits. But Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a Worlds End Music concert or two!

Firstly, our evening Christmas concert, at St Martin’s – (7pm, Thursday 14th December) – celebrating the mellow and jubilant world of brass with the spectacular Cromwell Brass. In a break from the last two years of string quartet Christmas concerts, I thought there’s nothing like a brass group to bring you a real Christmas spirit. Led by Louis Barclay, who played for us in the very first Worlds End Music concert in September 21, this talented young brass quintet will bring you a smorgasbord of all the best brass festive music, including pieces by Mendelssohn and John Rutter. I’m particularly looking forward to this one, as I don’t have to play, just listen and enjoy!

And continuing a tradition by popular request, with our friends from Sydenham, enSEmble26 we bring you The Snowman, once again, at 2pm on Sunday 17th December. Read by Susie Riddell, of The Archers, this concert is one of my favourite in the entire musical calender! Susie’s sensitve and beautifully told tale of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman will be accompanied by Howard Blake’s music, arranged by the composer for string quartet, in a live concert of story-telling. Ellie Fagg, our violinist, and I, never fail to shed a tear as the Snowman melts away – come and see if you can spot us wiping our eyes surreptitiously!

Both concerts will together raise money for Shelter, specifically for London’s homeless youth. Chosen by Louis, I think this is a very worthy cause. The idea for raising money for charity came to me after you, the audience, alongside my fellow professional musicians, raised £2,108 at our Concert for Ukraine. The financial model is that the musicians are paid (I can’t keep asking musicians to play for nothing – they have to earn a living after all!) and once expenses have been met, any remaining profit will be donated to a nominated charity. In this way we can continue to have world-class concerts but also make a difference to our community. Most recently, we donated £200 to Bromley Brighter Beginnings, a whopping £825 for East Grinstead Hospital’s Peanut Children’s Ward and last year’s Christmas concerts donated £549 to the Bromley Food Bank. Thanks to your audience support, we are not only able to put on world class concerts in the local area, but also make a difference to people’s lives.

INTRODUCTION

Long, long ago, before there was a worldwide pandemic, I had the desire to do some music-making close to home. The pandemic really brought this into focus. During the lockdown, deprived of our usual connections with audiences, many musicians played on our doorsteps and driveways after the Thursday evening ‘Clap for Carers’. The intimate joy of performing to a community of which you are a part is very special. Because of this experience, and with the extraordinary help and encouragement of Philippa Rooke, I set up an organisation to bring local professional musicians together with local music lovers. There are many fantastic professional musicians living in the area of Green Street Green, Chelsfield and Orpington so we don’t have to go far to find world-class music and bring it to your doors!

Worlds End Music is named after Worlds End Lane. This is the road where St Mary’s Church, one of our venues is found. Our other venue is St Martin of Tours in Chelsfield, which is found at the other end of Worlds End Lane, on Church Road. I walked down the lane many times during the pandemic, as I was pondering this new musical venture. I’ve named it with a smile, as it has felt slightly apocalyptic the past year or so! This little enterprise will do its best to counter the effects on your soul of the complicated times we’re living in and we hope you enjoy the concerts and wish to become involved.

Worlds End Music also has the desire to nurture local young talent and as a result, we aim to bring a Young Artist to feature in as many of our concerts as possible. Our first year celebrated the talents of recently graduated trumpet player Louis Barclay, from Green Street Green, violinist Scott Storey from Beckenham and talented young singer Jonathan Brookes. Scott has recently been appointed co-leader of the National Youth Orchestra and has won a place at the Royal College of Music to study joint viola and violin. Louis is going to be returning to Worlds End Music in the Autumn with his brass quintet, Cromwell Brass. Next year we will be inviting local young professional cellist, Henry Hargreaves, amongst others. Our recent charity event ‘Concert for Ukraine’ led to a slightly altered criteria and we went out of the area to invite accomplished young Ukrainian/British cellist, Nina Kiva, to play with us – with special permission from Sir Karl Jenkins, we performed the Benedictus from The Armed Man for reduced forces, with Nina as angelic-sounding soloist. Truly a special moment, with huge thanks to Sir Karl for his generosity.

With a rapidly growing audience who have demonstrated their desire for local, quality music-making, I think we’re safe to carry on with plans for next year! Huge thanks to all of you, our supporters and audience, for coming to concerts despite the threat of Covid; to the churches for hosting us and particularly to Phillippa Rooke – without her guiding hand this venture would never have got off the ground. If you would like to be kept informed of our future ventures, please enter your email below. If you would like to contact us, please email info@worldsendmusic.com If you’re not a fan of email, you can call 07971 440850. Worlds End Music currently has no funding – at some point we will look at charitable status and Friends, in order to better finance the venture but in the meantime we would be so grateful for your help in just spreading the word so we can grow our audience!

Rebecca Gilliver