Chelsea Concerts

Christmas Concert 2012

In aid of the Rhinology and Laryngology Research Fund

Holy Trinity Sloane Square

Tuesday 11th December

Yesterday was our Christmas Concert. This year we were joined by yet more marvellous musicians; famous soprano Meeta Raval and pianist Lynn Carter, and the chic and well-known Duo Diez.

Alexandra rehearses with Violeta Barrena and Dimitris Dekavallas

Alexandra and I were so honoured that Meeta Raval, Lynn Carter, Violeta Barrena and Dimitris Dekavallas wanted to perform for Chelsea Concerts and help raise money for the Rhinology and Laryngology Fund, a charity close to my heart as my Grandfather, Godfrey Bostock, was a patron and also had his life greatly enhanced and saved by the amazing work of the surgeons encouraged in their ground-breaking work by the charity.

The Great East Window

As ever it was an architectural thrill to preform in Holy Trinity, 'The Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts', which was so nearly demolished after damage caused by the Blitz. It really is a treasure house and contains the finest craftsmanship of the period, not to mention one of the best organs in the country, which has recently been restored in a most splendid way.

Self rehearsing 'Hark the Herald' and making far too much noise!!

Alexandra was feeding her ten week old baby in the corridor underneath the organ loft, which I hadn't registered, so poor things got a mighty shock when I decided to play a very very loud chord...chord ended and wailing ensued from baby!!

Sopranos Alexandra Kennedy and Meeta Raval

Meeta and pianist Lynn Carter

Self rehearsing Handel's 'Va tacito e nascosto' (Giulio Cesare) with Lynn and Violeta

Meeta and I have been best friends and worked often together since we were students at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and we formed 'Ravishyn', alongside Lynn, in 2008, so it was a thrill to perform together again last night. Meeta has been taking the World by storm; last year she was finalist in Cardiff Singer of the World and she has finished touring with Opera North as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

Lynn

Dimitris

'Ravishyn'

It was a real privilege to perform alongside and listen to Violeta and Dimitris, both of whom are very well-known in their own right. They brought a new exotic touch to Chelsea Concerts with their magnificent rendering of various Tangos and their unique accompaniments.

As ever, the evening would have been impossible were it not for the tireless help of the Committee, who welcomed at the door collected ice in the freezing cold, opened champagne, poured even more of it, wore Father Christmas hats...etc. Complete stars!!

Some of the superb Committee of Honour

I think you can tell I can't play the guitar!!

Meeta, one of the great sopranos of our generation

Meeta at Alexandra's 'Lakme' was wonderful, their voices combining to make a magnificent result and filling the great church from floor to ceiling.

The concert ended with 'O Holy Night' and a moment for the assembled throng to let rip to 'Hark the Herald', which I had been looking forward to playing all night on the four manual monster that is the newly restored organ at Holy Trinity!

As ever, we would wish to thank very much everyone who performed, came along and made the evening possible. We raised well over £1500 for the Rhinology and Laryngology Fund.

For more information on Chelsea Concerts please see our websitee: www.chelseaconcerts.com

                       All images in this blog are under the copyright ownership of Oliver Gerrish

Chelsea Concerts

A musical hub in the Royal Borough...

Self and Alexandra on a street in Chelsea

Photographer Hannah Gates

Soprano Alexandra Kennedy and I started Chelsea Concerts in April 2009 with the dual aims of bringing Classical Music to a wider audience in an accessible and fun way and to raise money for important causes, including The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, SSAFA, The Rifles Care for Casualties, The Redevelopment Trust, The Red Cross Haiti Appeal and, on tuesday next week, The Rhinology and Laryngology Research Fund. 

Raising money for these charities has been an education in so many ways, not least in learning about the causes they seek to help and raise awareness for.  

     Self singing at the Chelsea Concerts Christmas Concert at Sloane Square 2011


We have had the huge privilege of performing in several of London's most beautiful buildings, including Chelsea Old Church, St Augustine's Church Queensgate and Holy Trinity Sloane Square.

For our first concert we chose to perform Pergolesi's Stabat Mater at Chelsea Old Church, an intimate setting, for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust. This village-like church was filled to the rafters with guests, the band, conducted by Hugh Brunt, and the extraordinary Baroque music of Pergolesi. Our good friend Simon May, who lives with Cystic Fibrosis, spoke before the concert in a sensitive, amusing and moving way about the condition. I will never forget his drinking champagne while leaning on an oxygen tank. He is a stalwart fundraiser for the CF Trust and has more energy than anyone I know.

Alexandra rehearsing with the band and Hugh Brunt at Chelsea Old Church in 2009 for Pergolesi's Stabat Mater in aid of The Cystic Fibrosis Trust

Chelsea Old Church, our first venue

Hugh Brunt and the band at Chelsea Old Church

Our Christmas Concert at Chelsea Old Church in 2009

A sea of faces guests having drinks in the Petyt Hall

Chelsea Concerts attracts a hugely diverse crowd and happily, we hope, combines music, champagne and socialising. Luckily, because Alexandra is rather beautiful, the whole thing also looks rather glamorous and Alex has had worn more posh frocks than I've sung evensongs!!

Self out-glamoured at our first concert...

...and again at the second...

ditto...

...not giving up!...

...well, how do you equal that...answers on a postcard!

At the Bonsall Garden Opera...had to be in the Church due to typical Derbyshire Summer weather...

Alexandra and I have had the very good fortune to perform alongside some brilliant musicians, including violinist Victoria Lyon, trumpeter Simon Desbruslais, harpist Ophelia Hohler, conductor Hugh Brunt and, on tuesday next week, soprano Meeta Raval and the amazing Duo Diez. There have also been many others, which I will save their blushes and not mention here.

Rehearsals in Holy Trinity Sloane Square

Concert for St George's Day

Trumpeter Simon Desbruslais

       Concert for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust with special guest and speaker Jenny Agutter

       Christmas Concert 2011 with Susannah Hope, Tim Lowe, Ali, Self and Ophelia Hohler pictured.

Victoria Lyon

Chelsea Concerts, aided by the most marvellous committee of family and friends, has raised over £12,000 so far for various charities. Putting on a concert costs a lot of money, one has the church to pay for, the drinks, printing and, finally and most importantly, the musicians. We hope to get sponsorship in the future so we can give more to charity.

Tuesday 11th December this year is going to be a corker of a concert at Holy Trinity Sloane Square, with Cardiff Singer of the World Finalist soprano Meeta Raval, the brilliant Duo Diez and Lynn Carter on the piano...I will also attempt to play Hark the Herald on the famous Willis organ at Holy Trinity.

For tickets for the Christmas Concert on tuesday and information on what we do please go to www.chelseaconcerts.com

One of Yvonne Vander Heul's wonderful paintings of our Christmas Concert in 2010

All images in this blog are under the copyright ownership of Oliver Gerrish

Young Georgian Twelfth Night Christmas Ball

Young Georgian Twelfth Night Christmas Ball
Friday 30th November 2012




This stately shindig was the first in a series of parties, trips, concerts and events at The Georgian Group to mark the Tenth Anniversary of The Young Georgians, which I re founded in 2002...yes I was a very precocious young whippersnapper!

    Self and Sophie Edmonds, the Hosts, early on in the evening...

Sophie and I arrived at the Georgian Group on Friday knowing a long day was starting...trees to carry upstairs, huge banners of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens to hang on the fourteen foot high walls, canapes to assemble, bubbly to chill, costumes to prepare, dance cards to print and the mighty Twelfth Cake to create. All in a day's work for us though as this the eighth such ball in the last two years; there have been Revolutionary, Royalist, Anarchist, Chinoserie, Nabob, Hellfire and Fairytale themes to name some of them. Each time a wonderfully diverse crowd of Young Georgians, dance aficionados and other revellers descend on the noble Robert Adam townhouse, number Six Fitzroy Square, which is home to the Georgian Group and it's twenty and thirty-something wing, The Young Georgians.

         The Hampshire Regency Society dress in preparation of their sets

In the past we have had tableau, ranging from sacrificial rituals for the Hellfire Party to Milicent Binks' exotic turn for the Nabob Party, string quartets, singing, elaborate dances and other entertainments. This time the guests, as well as dancing themselves, had the thrill of watching the Hampshire Regency Society strutting their corseted stuff around the Adam Rooms. This was led by James Arnott, who was a consummate MC.

For once Number Six Fitzroy Square had a fully-liveried staff, and the two rather over talkative footmen were on hand to greet guests and let back in those who had a need for tobacco.

The evening kicked off with a ballerina, tip toeing around as The Sugar Plum Fairy, in a room full of guests swathed in their finery...a girl in a gold Grecian dress, another with a neck swathed in black swan feathers, two chaps in their Oxford Rowing blazers, another dressed as George III and many more who appeared to have stepped straight out of portraits.

As the evening went on, and the champagne flowed, people became comfortable in their finery and the party assumed the guise of a fully-fledged Georgian assembly...someone commented that this was all so 'un-cool' that it was in fact 'well-cool'...so that is good, I think?!

Apart from the bubbly there was Wassail, fine cheeses, Georgian Canapes, exquisite miniature puddings, not to mention the vast Twelfth Cake, which was likened to a Prussian War Helmet, St Peter's Rome and a large Mosque...tasty!

The Twelfth Cake in all it's architectural glory

The Twelfth Cake was presented, to the Regal tones of Handel's Zadok the Priest, by Sophie and Henry, the Young Georgian Vice Chairman and carried through the assembled throng and down the gentle slope of Robert Adam's cantilevered stone stairs to be divided in to rather more edible sized morsels. Hidden within the cake were a pea and a bean for the King and Queen of the Twelfth. These were found and the pair were made Royal for a night...

The King and Queen of Twelfth Night

             No nasty 'Clapboard Bitch' on the door, instead a Regency beauty...

The Ball brought together a large and diverse crowd and threw them back in time, where manners were better, food less fussy, dancing less dirty and clothes more frilly...this was only a temporary time trip, for it was then on to the brilliant 'Lucky Pig' on Clipstone Street to dance the night away in our own era...from Bach to Britney in one evening!!

There will be more high jinks of this Georgian kind in the future...watch this space!

Self and Sophie at the end of the Ball, happy that people had enjoyed themselves and a little magic had been made.

For more information on the Georgian Group architectural charity please go to www.georgiangroup.org.uk and see what we do.

Here is was Sophie and I do too: www.edmondsandgerrish.co.uk 



All images in this blog are under the copyright ownership of Oliver Gerrish