New music commissioned from celebrated composers for local Fulham church

27/05/08

Remarkable flourishing of music and art commissioning in a multi-ethnic, deprived, inner-London parish.

A church in North Fulham, which serves a largely deprived parish of large council estates, is developing a reputation for bringing new artistic work to the public alongside its award winning community ventures. St Andrew’s, Fulham Fields, which won a Church Times Award for Action in the Community for its successful Fruit and Vegetable Co-operative, and runs a highly successful Soup Kitchen for the homeless, is also a place where new art and music are flourishing. After this year’s innovative art competition with The Slade School of Fine Art, resulting in the third exhibition in the church in two years, and plans to commission major new pieces of art for the interior of the building, the church is preparing to host its first ever Music Festival in June.

The festival includes Cabaret, Children’s Workshops, Choir and Organ Recitals, and reaches its climax on the evening of Sunday 22 June in a Festival Service at which the Bishop of London, The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres will be preaching, and three new pieces of music written especially for the event will be heard for the first time. Dr Chartres said:

“I am delighted to be able to join St Andrew's for this very exciting occasion. It is always a delight to hear that churches are places where artistic culture is flourishing alongside community activities, and both of these seem very much alive at St Andrew's.”

The music has been commissioned from two leading church composers (Prof Peter Aston and Humphrey Clucas) and by a rising star in the world of contemporary music, Jonathan Coffer (who last year won the BBC Proms Young Composer Competition and is just finishing a BBC commission). His piece Gethsemane is a setting of a poem by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and is for soloists, choir and organ. Rowan Williams said:

“I am very grateful indeed to Jonathan Coffer for his setting of words of mine. It's a particular joy to see this as part of such a positive and generous engagement with the arts by a local church community!”

Prof Aston has written a new setting of the canticles to be known as The St Andrew’s Service: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in Bb and Humphrey Clucas has written a new set of Responses for the service. The choir is the extended choir of St Andrew’s which has grown to thirty five singers or more through its Facebook group known as Evensong and Sausages. Every first Sunday of the month the singers augment the Parish Choir to sing evensong to cathedral standard and then have a party (at which sausages and wine are the main ingredients!).

Other events in the weekend of music making include a Cabaret and Dinner on Friday 20 June, free Children’s Music Workshops led by leading professional musicians on the Saturday morning from 10 until 12 (no experience required, just turn up and enjoy), an organ recital and cream teas at 4.15, and a concert by the leading Oxford choir Commotio in the evening.

Further details of all the events are available through the Vicar, Fr Martin Eastwood on 020 7385 5023 and through the church’s website www.standrewsfulham.com.