Pianist Tim Horton and violinist Claudia Aimone-Marsan will perform works by Mozart, Messiaen and Schumann at St John’s on 18th September

Leytonstone’s St John’s Church has plans for two live classical music concerts this autumn.

Pianist Tim Horton and violinist Claudia Aimone-Marsan will perform works by Mozart, Messiaen and Schumann at St John’s church on 18th September at 1pm in a concert entitled: ‘From sorrow to radiance’.

A month later, on 16th October at the same time and in the same venue, viola player Rachel Roberts and pianist Sophia Rahman will perform works by York Bowen, Vaughan Williams and Rececca Clarke in an event entitled: A voice of one’s own. 

And in November, the renowned chamber music group Ensemble 360 will put on a ‘storybook concert’ for 180 local primary school children at St Columba church on Woodhouse Road in south Leytonstone.  The children will learn songs based on the Giddy Goat book by Jamie Rix and Lynne Chapman, accompanied by live music composed by Paul Rissmann. 

This will be followed by an evening concert in the same church, featuring Mozart’s clarinet quintet, performed by Pitchstone Music players and clarinetist Rob Plane, head of woodwind, brass and percussion at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

All the concerts are free, and are organised by Pitchstone’s Rachel Roberts, who founded the organisation a year ago with the aim of bringing world class classical music into the heart of Leytonstone.  

Rachel says she “would love every person in the UK to have the opportunity to have a life enhancing relationship with classical music”.  This is something she benefited from as a child growing up in rural Huddersfield, where she received free school meals and free viola lessons that helped her win a scholarship to Chethams School of Music and later the Royal Northern College of Music based in Manchester.  She’s now professor of viola at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

But Rachel says music in schools has been “hollowed out” and there is far less opportunity for children to acquire the tools to be able to make and enjoy their own music. 

In July, Rachel and fellow musicians put on a hugely successful family music show hosted by presenter and performer Rosie Bergonzi, where children were encouraged to respond naturally to the music and to try their hand at conducting. This was followed by an evening performance for adults.

Pitchstone, which has received some funding from Waltham Forest Council for its educational programmes, is hoping to be granted charitable status by the end of the year and to win funding for a series of six more family and evening events in the new year. 

For more information on Pitchstone Music go here

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