Free recitals by musicians from around the world
Thursday lunchtime recitals are a long-standing tradition at St Mary Redcliffe, giving people the opportunity to hear music played in our historic church. The church has a four manual pipe organ by Harrison and Harrison of Durham, which is highly regarded as a masterpiece of the early twentieth century.
We are delighted that we will be having recitals throughout Lent.
Mr W Birde of the Chappell
22nd February
A solo harpsichord and organ recital celebrating the legacy of William Byrd
British harpsichordist, early organist, and director Matthew Brown is in demand as a continuo player, recitalist, repetiteur, vocal coach and conductor across London and beyond. A graduate of the University of Bristol (BA with First Class Honours) and Guildhall School of Music and Drama (MPerf with Distinction), Matthew has studied under various leading harpsichordists such as Carole Cerasi, James Johnstone, and Colin Booth, and gained high praise for his graduating recitals and research.
Matthew’s concert, opera and chamber music work has seen him collaborate with groups such as the Academy of Ancient Music, Genesis Sixteen, Cambridge Handel Opera Company, Ryedale Festival Opera, Istante Collective, Victoria Baroque Players, and Southern Sinfonia, under a variety of conductors including David Hill MBE, Eamonn Dougan, Julian Perkins, and Simon Chalk, and at number of major venues and festivals, such as Milton Court Concert Hall, the Barbican Centre, London International Festival of Early Music, Deal Festival, Ryedale Festival, and performances on the Cobbe Collection of Keyboard Instruments at Hatchlands Park. In opera, he has coached and prepared singers in collaboration with Chris Hopkins, Julian Perkins, and Eamonn Dougan, and acted as rehearsal accompanist and continuo player on a variety of productions. He also coaches singers in historical repertoire, and his clients have recently found success at early singing competitions across Europe.
Matthew is the founder and Artistic Director of The Queenes Chappell, a historically informed solo-voice consort, who are looking forward to a busy 2024 with many concerts, festival appearances, and collaborations with other ensembles. As a solo harpsichordist, Matthew was the First Prize winner at the 2023 Lewis Memorial Prize competition, and has appeared across the UK and in Canada as a recitalist on the harpsichord and the organ. He combines his busy performing career with his work as Organist and Director of Music at St Mary’s Stoke D’Abernon, where he presides over the baroque Frobenius organ and a flourishing music department.
Great Sacred Music
29th February 2024
A meditative choral recital, featuring some stunning pieces of sacred music sung by St. Paul's Clifton and SMR Scholars. Programme TBA
Old Testament Prophecy
7th March 2024
Raphael Geldsetzer (Tenor) and Eve Doyle (Alto) perform a recital exploring Old Testament Themes. Programme TBA.
Mainly Slow
14th March 2024
An experimental Organ recital featuring the music of Eva Maria Houben and Samuel Clap Birmaher
Samuel Clay Birmaher - Two Scenes: i. Upside-Down Mountain; ii. A River Hangs from the Sky
Eva-Maria Houben - some questions
Michael Bonaventure - Dissenters: i. The Station; ii. The Project
Huw Morgan studied music at the University of Oxford, where he was organ scholar of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford; he attended the Royal Academy of Music as a postgraduate, studying choral conducting with Patrick Russill, organ with Susan Landale and David Titterington, and voice with David Lowe, winning the Olwen Doreen Leyshon prize. He is currently director of the Redland Green Choir and Clifton Singers in Bristol and of Weston Choral Society. He has formerly held posts at Southwark Cathedral, St Laurence Catford, with the RSCM and with His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornets.
Huw performs regular mainly slow organ music concerts in Bristol and beyond (most recently New College, Oxford and the Lazarus-Haus, Berlin): the project focuses on experimental music and is intended to bring new audiences and composers together with the organ, exploring the instrument's extended expressive and technical possibilities. Huw is also a founder member of Automatronic, a collective that seeks to create, promote and perform new music for organ with electronics; and a founder of Firehead Organ Works, an online publishing collective. His own compositions have featured at numerous festivals (including BBC Tectonics, Sound Festival Scotland, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the Bergen International Organ Festival), on radio (Radio 3, Keith FM, Bristol's Noods Radio), on various CDs and in venues around the UK, Europe and North America.
Bristol University Singers with Elinor Cooper
Thursday 21st March
The most prestigious choir of Bristol University come to SMR for the first time for their end of term concert. Programme TBC.
Bristol University Singers are the university’s foremost chamber choir, performing a wide range of choral music to a professional standard throughout the academic year. Singers perform in a wide variety of settings, presenting concerts at venues including St George’s, Tyntesfield National Trust and the Victoria Rooms. The University Singers also take on professional recording work, and recently appeared in an award winning Christmas advert with Foster & Foster.
Bristol-based conductor Elinor Cooper works with choirs across the South West and London. Having graduated with a first-class BA in Music from the University of Bristol, she pursued an MMus in Choral Conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. There she studied with Adrian Partington, Sarah Tenant-Flowers, Andrea Brown and Greg Hallam. For two years, Elinor worked as a writer for BBC Music Magazine, and now combines freelance journalism with a performance career.
A graduate of The Sixteen’s prestigious training programme Genesis Sixteen, and alumna of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, Elinor has worked with a host of international conductors and artists. Highlights include consecutive BBC Proms with Vasily Petrenko, Bob Chilcott and Daniel Barenboim and masterclasses with Alice Farnham, John Butt and Sarah Connolly.
Elinor is currently Musical Director of Bristol University Singers, Collegium Singers, and Swindon Choral Society. She is Assistant Director of the prestigious Rodolfus Choir, working closely with Artistic Director Ralph Allwood. Elinor works with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, is a member of professional choir Celestia, and regularly sings with other professional choirs.