Bach and Beyond

7pm, Saturday, November 8th, TBC

St Martin-of-Tours, Church Road, Chelsfield.

Bach cello suites – and just a tiny bit beyond… Loose yourselves in the wonderful world of Bach and prepare for a beautiful journey discovering his iconic and beautiful cello suites. A concert for solo cello, Worlds End Music founder, Rebecca Gilliver, will give a performance of 2 of the suites, juxtaposed with short pieces by living composers, one of whom you’ve heard before in last year’s Christmas concert. The programme begins with Bach’s 1st suite in G major, the one that many people recognise – followed by Magical Thinking, a beautiful piece written by WEM’s favourite living composer, Rachel Stott. A short tonal piece, producing waves of harmony, this is a reflection on a poem which will be read concurrently. (We hope very much that Rachel will join us for the evening,) Rebecca will then play the haunting Gala Water, a piece by Sally Beamish, inspired by a Scottish folk song; the evening will be completed by going back to Bach for his joyful 3rd suite in C major.

This concert will be a fundraiser to support the Christmas concerts, which are expensive to put on. Usually we are able to risk it for a biscuit and hope that we can cover costs, but this year, financially, things are a bit more tricky. All profit made from the November concert will go to paying for the hire of the churches and for paying the musicians for our two Christmas concerts, details below. If we manage to break even and, hopefully more, any profits will be donated to a national charity, the MND association. Motor Neurone Disease is a devastating disease and the MNDA does amazing work supporting people and families stricken with this illness. We hope very much to raise enough money to both fund the concerts and make a donation. So shout out to all your friends and neighbours, and do get them to come and support your local music initiative!

Christmas Concerts

Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 7pm, Wednesday 10th December, St Martin-of-Tours

This should be fantastic! We’re so delighted to be welcoming back the amazing actor, Susie Riddell, of Archers fame, to read a setting of Dickens Christmas Carol. Accompanied by music specially composed to fit the story, performed by a string quartet, this should get you set up early in December to look forward to Christmas. A few carols or Christmas music will complete the programme. More details about this fun evening soon. We will welcome back Ellie Norris, who has performed at so many WEM events, notably playing up a storm in Vivald’s Summer. Two new faces will join Ellie and cellist Rebecca – Will Newell on violin and Dorothea Vogel, on viola. You will be able to check out biographes on the Artists page soon.

Our QR code programmes seem to be working well and most were able to access programme details and artist information, whilst keeping to our zero paper programmes commitment. Do ask for help if you’re unsure how this works when you arrive at the church. All these concerts will shortly be available to book through the website. It helps us SO much if you book in advance – you can still pay cash or card on the door, but booking just lets us know what the numbers are likely to be and stops me from having a heart attack of anxiety!!

The Snowman! Venue tbc, 11am, Saturday 20th December.

Once again, we are grateful to EnSEmble26 for bringing the Snowman back to Orpington. Always a delightful concert, this is a setting of Raymond Briggs well-loved story accommpanied by the original music. The string quartet is the same personnel as two years ago, and our usual crew for Christmas concert – we’re so happy that Ellie, Tom and Malcie can come over this way to play for us – Christmas wouldn’t be the same in Orpington without them! Susie Riddell will be back again, too, to read for the children and turn this concert into a magical morning for children and adults alike. Keep an eye out for the bit where the Snowman melts – bets are on that Ellie, Rebecca and Susie will shed a tear…! (It’s happened every SINGLE year!)

Plans for the future

Mozart’s Letters – a wonderful hour of music and readings collated by principal flautist of the LSO, Gareth Davies. Music from the Mozart flute quartets interspersed with readings from his letters. An informative, touching and amusing way to spend an evening. Currently postponed due to illness, we hope very much to be able to put this concert on in the spring.

Young Artists Programme

We would like to continue in our commitment to include some local young musicians in our concerts. If you know of a particularly talented youngster, do get in touch – we love to give a spot to uprising talent from the local community.

Young artists we have heard already include young professional trumpeter Louis Barclay; violinist Scott Storey (co-leader of the NYO, now student at the RCM); singer Jonathan Brookes and cellist Nina Kiva, who was the star of the show at our Ukrainian fundraiser. For the last 2 Christmas concerts we have invited 10 year old Martha Norris from Sydenham to give her concert debut singing ‘Walking in the Air’.

Festival of Youth

Another idea we have in the pipeline is a Festival of Youth. Continuing on from our desire to nurture young music in the community we are working on a plan to hold two concerts of young musicians. The first would be school-age players chosen from the classes of local music teachers; the second would be a showcase for college level students. Just on the top of the hill here in Green Street Green there are three teachers representing The Royal Academy, The Royal College and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama so we’re very excited about these possibilities.