St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine - September 2017

Postscript — Church business: Minutes of the APCM held at church on 24th April 2017
were not included in the July–August issue of the Magazine; however, printed copies are
available at the back of church, and the Minutes can also be read online.
soundbites music at smr
LOOKING FORWARD
— ANDREW KIRK, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC
HOW QUICKLY TIME FLIES! The choir summer holidays are at an
end and I am greatly looking forward to the next academic year and
some excellent music-making. I would like to take this opportunity
to thank our four visiting choirs — Backwell, Nailsea and Tickenham, Sage
Gateshead Chamber Choir and St Michael’s Cathedral, Kelowna, Canada —
as well as the Redcliffe Occasional Choir and their conductors for covering
the six Sundays in July–August.
Whilst mentioning the number six, Gesualdo Six will have performed a
concert in church on Saturday 2 September at 7.30pm. The founder and
leader of the group is Owain Park, a former Head Chorister at St Mary
Redcliffe who has an illustrious musical career ahead of him. This group of
talented young men has performed all over the UK and abroad with regular
appearances on Radio Three.
Recruitment is high on the agenda this term, especially in our back rows
of altos, tenors and basses. We wish Barney Pite, Dafydd Alexander and
Stanley Wilshire well as they take up their places at Oxford University this
autumn. All three have given excellent service to the choir as trebles and
young men — we will miss them.
On Tuesday 26 September at 7.30pm there is a free Organ Concert at Bristol
Colston Hall, in which I will be playing a few pieces along with virtuoso
organist Richard Hills — who is equally at home playing classical, jazz or
other light organ music.
On Saturday 14 October the combined boys and adults of Bath Abbey Choir
and St Mary Redcliffe for Evensong at 3pm in church, followed by a ‘friendly’
football match at SMRT school. This is the first time in many years that our
choirs have combined. We will be singing Stanford in C canticles, and his
anthem For Lo I raise up. I hope many of the congregation will be able to
attend this service, especially the Stanford fans (Paul Jenkin and others!)
Andrew Kirk; Director of Music