Lunchtime Organ Recital: Thomas Allery

Occurring
for 30 mins
Venue
The Temple Church, London
Address
The Temple Church, Temple, London EC4Y 7BB, EC4Y 1BB, United Kingdom

March from Scipio G F (1685-1759) Handel (arr WT Best) 3

Rhapsody in no 1 Herbert Howells (1892 - 1983) 7

Nann’s mask, Welcome home, Fancy in C fa ut Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) 6

Sargent’s Fantastic Sprite Herbert Howells (1892 - 1983) 3

Fantasia in G BWV 572 J S Bach (1685-1750) 10

In addition to his duties running the music programme at Temple Church, Thomas Allery maintains an active career as a keyboard player, in demand both as a soloist and continuo player, and equally at home on and harpsichord. Recent concert engagements have taken him to festivals at Buxton, St Albans International Organ Festival, Paxton, Orkney, Cadogan Hall, Lichfield Festival, and The Grange opera. In 2024 he was sponsored by the Eric Thompson to make a film of historic music from the City of London entitled ‘Sounds of the Square Mile’.

Thomas is in regular demand as a continuo player on organ and harpsichord, regularly performing with the Sixteen and with the award-winning chamber ensemble, Ensemble Hesperi. With this group, he has performed, broadcast and recorded widely. This ensemble has a reputation for its imaginative programming and its specialism in Scottish baroque repertoire. With Hesperi, Thomas was a ‘Live Music Now’ artist, delivering regular workshops in care homes, day centres and SEND schools across the UK, including projects leading choral residency programmes in care homes. In 2014-15, Thomas was a Junior Fellow in Harpsichord and Continuo at the Royal College of Music, and in 2019, he was selected as a Britten-Pears young artist, performing Bach cantatas under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe at Snape Maltings.

Today, Thomas is an advocate for the performance of figured bass and is passionate about its use as a pedagogical tool for music students. He is currently undertaking research into how seventeenth and eighteenth centuries continuo treatises can be adapted for use in keyboard education today and presented on this at the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini’s Conference on Basso continuo in 2021. Thomas currently is a professor of basso continuo in the Historical Performance department at the Royal College of Music.

Having initially studied Music at the University of Oxford, he subsequently graduated with distinction from the Masters programme at the Royal College of Music before being awarded a scholarship to study for an Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with Carole Cerasi and James Johnstone. In 2016 he was supported by the Eric Thompson trust to study historic organ repertoire with Erwin Wiersinga at the Martinikirk in Groningen.

The Temple Church, London

Welcome to the prayerful and beautiful Temple Church, steeped in the history of Christendom, this country and the whole Common Law World. 1162: the Round Church was built to be London’s Jerusalem. 1214–19: Magna Carta was negotiated in the Temple, and its greatest hero was buried in the Church. 1584, 1776, 1787: from Raleigh’s expeditions through the colonial constitutions to the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the Temple was the birthplace of American Law. And to this day the Church serves the legal colleges Inner and Middle Temple, London’s residents, visiting jurists and travellers from all over the world with some of the most uplifting services, music and discussions in London.

How can so ancient a building be equipped to serve the modern age in prayer and praise and engagement with the socio-legal challenges facing Britain and the wider world? Through Restoration & Renewal: Equipping the Temple Church for the next 100 Years, a major programme of refurbishment and repair, energised and supported by The Friends of the Temple Church.

Robin Griffith-Jones Master of the Temple
Mark Hatcher Reader of the Temple

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What's on

Lunchtime Organ Recital: Thomas Allery

Occurring
for 30 mins
Venue
The Temple Church, London
Address
The Temple Church, Temple, London EC4Y 7BB, EC4Y 1BB, United Kingdom

March from Scipio G F (1685-1759) Handel (arr WT Best) 3

Rhapsody in no 1 Herbert Howells (1892 - 1983) 7

Nann’s mask, Welcome home, Fancy in C fa ut Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) 6

Sargent’s Fantastic Sprite Herbert Howells (1892 - 1983) 3

Fantasia in G BWV 572 J S Bach (1685-1750) 10

In addition to his duties running the music programme at Temple Church, Thomas Allery maintains an active career as a keyboard player, in demand both as a soloist and continuo player, and equally at home on and harpsichord. Recent concert engagements have taken him to festivals at Buxton, St Albans International Organ Festival, Paxton, Orkney, Cadogan Hall, Lichfield Festival, and The Grange opera. In 2024 he was sponsored by the Eric Thompson to make a film of historic music from the City of London entitled ‘Sounds of the Square Mile’.

Thomas is in regular demand as a continuo player on organ and harpsichord, regularly performing with the Sixteen and with the award-winning chamber ensemble, Ensemble Hesperi. With this group, he has performed, broadcast and recorded widely. This ensemble has a reputation for its imaginative programming and its specialism in Scottish baroque repertoire. With Hesperi, Thomas was a ‘Live Music Now’ artist, delivering regular workshops in care homes, day centres and SEND schools across the UK, including projects leading choral residency programmes in care homes. In 2014-15, Thomas was a Junior Fellow in Harpsichord and Continuo at the Royal College of Music, and in 2019, he was selected as a Britten-Pears young artist, performing Bach cantatas under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe at Snape Maltings.

Today, Thomas is an advocate for the performance of figured bass and is passionate about its use as a pedagogical tool for music students. He is currently undertaking research into how seventeenth and eighteenth centuries continuo treatises can be adapted for use in keyboard education today and presented on this at the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini’s Conference on Basso continuo in 2021. Thomas currently is a professor of basso continuo in the Historical Performance department at the Royal College of Music.

Having initially studied Music at the University of Oxford, he subsequently graduated with distinction from the Masters programme at the Royal College of Music before being awarded a scholarship to study for an Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with Carole Cerasi and James Johnstone. In 2016 he was supported by the Eric Thompson trust to study historic organ repertoire with Erwin Wiersinga at the Martinikirk in Groningen.

Safeguarding

The care and protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults who are involved in Church activities is the responsibility of the whole Church. Everyone who participates in the life of the Church has a role to play in promoting a Safer Church for all.This Safeguarding Policy is based on the Safeguarding Policy Statement of the Church of England that was agreed and published by the House of Bishops in 2017. It sets out the Safeguarding Policy of the Diocese of London and in particular a summary of the roles and responsibilities of all church bodies and office holders as we work together to protect children, young people and vulnerable adults who are involved in church activities.

This policy makes six overarching policy commitments:

To promote a safer environment and culture
To enable and ensure safe recruitment practice and to support all those within the Church with any responsibility related to children, young people, and vulnerable adults
To respond promptly to every safeguarding concern or allegation
To offer pastoral care to victims/survivors of abuse and other affected persons
To offer pastoral care to those who are the subject of concerns or allegations of abuse and other affected persons
To respond to those who may pose a present risk to others.

https://www.templechurch.com/application/files/7216/2074/0149/Temple_Church_Safeguarding_Policy_revi

The Temple Church, London Charity No. 1205712