Joy is organist at St. Luke's San Francisco and Associate Musician and Director of Girls Choir at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.She will be playing music of French female composers from La Belle Epoque alongside some 20th Century American works by Florence Price, Nkeiru Okoye and Conner Chee.Tickets on the door: Adults £10 and children £5Christ Church, Streatham, 3 Christchurch Road, Streatham, SW2 3ET
Christ Church Refurbishment Project 2025 is the second year of our fundraising efforts to raise the cash for our much-needed programme of improvement works at Christ Church. We do not have the space for a church hall, but what we do have is a small room off of the main church building which is accessible by two steps down from the church. It is sufficiently large to support meetings of small groups, but there is only one toilet, which is not accessible to people in wheelchairs, and there are no kitchen facilities. The toilet situation is dire, particularly when there is a wedding or funeral taking place in the church and there are a lot of people requiring access, in addition, the fact that it is not accessible to people in wheelchairs, means that we are failing in the area of equal opportunities for all. New kitchen facilities will enable us to hold more functions, both for our congregation and the wider community. Our church school, which is adjacent to this room, are keen for the development to take place so that they can have the opportunity to use the new facilities to enrich the curricular offer of both their pupils and their parents and carers. Several groups in the local community would also welcome improved facilities to enhance their choices over the types of activities they will be able to offer. We are home to the West End Gospel Choir and the Campanile Choir and we will also be starting up a Children’s Choir in the new academic year. All of this means that the new facilities at church will enrich not only the lives of our congregation, but many people beyond the Sunday and weekly Worship. The improvements to the toilets, the kitchen, and the lift [to improve disabled access from the church], have all been ratified by the P.C.C. however, they will need an increase in electrical power in order to function correctly. The Architects have come up with a plan to run additional electricity from the church to facilitate this; this particular aspect of the works required us to obtain a Faculty, which we now have, so all that is holding us back is much-needed funds. 2024 was spent working with our architects, Roger Mears and Co. and various contractors to come up with plans for the refurbishment. Confirmed plans are now in place, all of the necessary permissions have been obtained, and we are just now waiting for sufficient funds to progress the work. The congregation have worked tirelessly to raise funds throughout 2024 and 2025, by holding monthly concerts, running stalls, and we will be holding a summer fair on 27th July. As of May this year, we have managed to raise £13,773 but we are still a long way off our total. Watch this space to find out how we progress with our plans! Should you feel moved to help us with a donation our bank details are as follows: Name of account: Christ Church PCC Account No: 12827368 Sort Code: 16 00 93 Bank: RBS
In this concert, Thomas will explore music by Andrew York, Abigél Varga and Martin Schley as well as improvisations. There will also be an opportunity to request musical postcards that will be recorded as part of the concert.Thomas Siemens (Germany) grew up in a musical family where he received a broad musical education from a young age. This included lessons on the piano and on the violin (later viola) and singing lessons. His main focus quickly became the classical guitar where he was able to achieve multiple successes like winning a first prize at the “Federal Competition for Young Musicians” held by the German Music Council. Other notable achievements include winning the Isolde-von-Müller prize and playing at the international festival “Eurofestival der Zupfmusik”.He completed his guitar studies with Michael Tröster, additionally, he attended Masterclasses with Aniello Desiderio, Scott Tennant, and Carlo Marchione among others. His artistic and musical work includes regular performances as soloist, as well as chamber music, and teaching. In recent years the pursuit of classical improvisation became a special focus.Currently, Thomas Siemens is a doctoral student at Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he investigates improvisation on the guitar in the 19th century. His work focuses on the intersection between historiography, autoethnography, and practice, exploring what stories we carry in our practice and how if we change the story we tell our practice changes alongside it. He is supervised by Dr. Amy Blier-Carruthers, Professor David Dolan, Matthew Kaner, and Toby Carr.
An Organ Recital on our Grade 1 listed, William Hill Organ by organist Klaus-C van den Kerkhoff.Saturday March 1st at 6.00pm. Tickets on the door £10, Concessions £5. All monies raised will go to our Refurbishment Programme.The concert features music by Johann Sebastian Bach, 'Rhosymedre' by Ralph Vaughan Williams and the 5th Organ Symphony by Charles-Marie Vidor.There will be refreshments after the concert [for a small donation] which will provide an opportunity to meet and talk to the organist Klaus.Come along and bring your friends - it should be a wonderful evening.
