Music Halls Project launches second venue in Waltham Forest This autumn an exciting new project launches in Waltham Forest, bringing monthly live music […]By Waltham Forest Echo
Music Halls Project launches second venue in Waltham Forest
St John’s Church in Leytonstone hosts its first music hall event on Friday 28th September
This autumn an exciting new project launches in Waltham Forest, bringing monthly live music gigs to the historic St John’s Church in Leytonstone.
Created in partnership with the church and local community, St John’s Music Hall will showcase folk, jazz and roots music from around the world.
The initiative is part of the Music Halls Project, which brings world class arts programming into public spaces, working with community partners. St John’s is the second undertaking, with our St Mary’s Music Hall project having already been successfully running for the past year at St Mary’s Church in Walthamstow Village, hosting everyone from jazz legend Soweto Kinch to the London Syrian Ensemble.
As with St Mary’s, the programming emphasis at St John’s will be on acts of the highest artistic quality, some of them will be bigger, recognisable names, and others will be lesser-known, but no less good!
A working church since the mid-1700s, St John’s has had a state-of-the-art sound-system installed to complement it’s naturally-impressive acoustics, providing the perfect environment for people to experience live music. The venue can accommodate more than 400 people, and with pop-up street food and a temporary bar set up for the events it makes a brilliant new addition to the night-time offering in the borough, providing residents with the chance to engage with vibrant culture on your doorstep. Handily it’s also only one minute from the tube and bus stations!
Our first show is on Friday 28th September with the virtuoso Kora player, singer and multi-instrumentalist Diabel Cissokho, part of the great line of Cissokho griots from Senegal, followed by Danish traditional duo Andreas and Rune on Saturday 20th October. On Friday 9th November we’ll be welcoming Tarantella Roots band Telamure, bringing the sounds and culture of southern Italy to our corner of north-east London, along with fêted melodeon player Andy Cutting for a folk double-bill. This show is part of the 2018 London Roots Festival which we’re excited about, as it provides a great opportunity to showcase Leytonstone to a wider audience.
Promoting the area and engaging with the community is something we’re passionate about so over the coming months we will also be programming shows that are of interest to the local audience, particularly groups who may not typically engage with cultural activities in the borough.
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