Saturday, August 16, 2014

Fund-raising can be fun

Last weekend we headed off to deepest Surrey for a concert organised by Levine Andrade, a good friend, in a beautiful church. Levine has been organising an annual concert there for the last 14 years, even though he no longer lives in the area.

St Peter's Church, Hascombe
The inside of the church was spectacular and quite unexpected! It was rebuilt in 1864 in Bargate stone in 13th century style and although it is a small church it is packed full of interesting features. Almost every surface is heavily decorated and I tried to capture its splendour in my photos:

Wow!
Magnificent ceiling
Beautiful ornamentation everywhere
A dove atop the font 
Lovely flower motifs
All around the main body of the church there was a wonderful hand-painted frieze of fish behind netting 
More fish imagery on the kneelers
The concert this year was extra special for 2 reasons; i) they were donating some of the proceeds to Alzheimer's Research UK and ii) Levine commissioned Mike to write a piece for the concert.


We also had friends staying the weekend so it was nice to share it with them too (Hi Phil if you're reading this!). There was a rehearsal beforehand and so we set off in plenty of time to get there for 3pm when Mike's piece was to be rehearsed. Our friends set off at the same time as us but sadly we got stuck in a massive traffic jam following a road traffic accident and arrived 15 minutes late. Mike prides himself on never being late for anything and he was beside himself when he realised that we would be late, poor love. Sometimes things just don't go to plan.

When we arrived at the church I just dropped him off and he ran ahead whilst I found somewhere to park the car.

Rehearsal in full swing
That's Mike with his head down. It looks as if he's praying but actually he's following the score so he can check the players are doing what he wants them to do (speed, intonation etc etc). Levine is conducting.
After the rehearsal we all headed off to the White Horse Pub nearby to grab a bite to eat before the concert.

The church was packed for the concert and it was a lovely setting for it.

Mike had written a beautiful piece entitled 'Adagio for Strings' which was very popular with both audience and players alike. Many people and players came over to congratulate him during he interval and again afterwards. I was so proud of him! 


Mike shaking hands with the leader of the orchestra afterwards
Conductor and composer
I got in on the act too - not sure what I'm doing with the hand-on-hip thing though!
A most enjoyable evening and a lovely way to raise money for ARUK and the church at the same time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful church :) the fishy frieze is lovely. Thanks for sharing.

Evz.