Our Mission
Our youth work focuses on high-quality musical education. Local children benefit from free and expert tuition in a part of London with almost no free arts provision. Every week, over 80 young people sing in our choirs or learn the piano or organ with us. Each year we run residential courses for them outside London, including at Cambridge University. The parish sees music as an agent of change, improving life chances, academic engagement, broadening horizons, and ultimately relieving poverty and creating social mobility.
Our youth choirs have been running since January 2013. The area between Brixton, Camberwell and Kennington, south London, is one of Britain’s toughest places to grow up. Two teenagers were killed in summer 2018 – one shot, one stabbed – by members of rival gangs, next to our church primary school. Child poverty in these postcodes is higher than in 95% of the country. It is also Ground Zero of the Windrush scandal; many locals are descended from Caribbean and African migrants, and live in constant fear of family members being detained by the immigration services.
Choirs
Children’s Choir
Our boys’ and girls’ choirs are for primary school children (year 2-6). We rehearse every week after school from 4pm until 5.15pm – boys’ on a Tuesday and girls’ on a Wednesday – and sing regularly for church services and concerts.
Consort Choir
Our consort choir consists of secondary school pupils from the local area, many of whom have come up through the ranks of the junior choirs. We rehearse on Wednesdays from 5.30-6.30pm singing a wide range of repertoire. We sing services as a separate group, alongside supporting the younger children and singing with the adults. The group has a relaxed social atmosphere and many choristers have met their closest friends in the choir.
Highlights
Highlights of the last 11 years include Britten’s War Requiem at the Cadogan Hall, Bach’s St John Passion at St John the Divine, Handel’s Messiah in the Royal Albert Hall, and a first performance of ‘Footsteps’ by Owain Park in the Chapel of Trinity College Cambridge alongside acclaimed choral group Tenebrae. The choirs have been broadcast live twice on BBC Radio 2, and have recorded with international ensemble Chineke!. Last year, they sang concerts on Ascension Day with Winchester College at the top of 22 Bishopsgate and St Michael’s Cornhill, and took part in a performance of Verdi’s Tosca with Lambeth Orchestra. Later in the year, they sang Britten’s Ceremony of Carols to mark the launch of our organ project. Our consort has sung on BBC radio 2, in Norwich Cathedral, the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham and in St. John’s College Cambridge.
Recent choristers have gained places to prestigious institutions including Westminster Abbey, King’s and St John’s Colleges Cambridge, The Chapel Royal, Christ’s Hospital School, Southwark Cathedral, and Temple Church.
Residential Courses
Each summer we run a six-day residential at St John’s College, Cambridge for the choirs. The choirs stay in the college school for six days, rehearsing and using the college facilities, and singing for public services in the college chapel. A strong musical and pastoral team accompany the children, including current and former students at the University of Cambridge. Rehearsal times are punctuated with sports, sightseeing, and learning about university life.
The summer residential plays a major role in widening the educational horizons of our children. They now feel at home among the ancient buildings of the University of Cambridge – sadly a rare feeling among inner-city state school children. They naturally ask such questions as “What do I have to do to get into Cambridge?” and “What’s it like to study here?”
Our consort choir also has an annual residential in different locations. The first, in 2018, was in Walsingham in Norfolk, featuring performances in the Shrine and local parish church. In 2019 we were in Norwich, singing in the Shrine of St. Julian and in Norwich Cathedral for Ascension Day High Mass. They now participate each year in Gabrieli Roar, an inspiring opportunity to learn and perform a large-scale piece of music – last year Verdi’s Requiem and this year Haydn’s The Seasons - alongside new friends. Throughout the week, they are tutored and supported by renowned international musicians, and are given the opportunity to perform the works in prestigious venues.
Email Anna for more information.