Music at St Mary Magdalene's
Colette Joyce and Anna Hamilton from St. Mary Magdalene’s, on using their church building and music to bring people together, celebrate their mission, and raise the profile of their outreach projects in the local community.
St. Mary Magdalene on Holloway Road is the ideal venue for musical celebration – with a large performing space, a stunning piano, perfect acoustics and an energetic congregation with an open mind.
The outreach projects of the church – the St. Mary Magdalene Centre for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, and the Paradise Project, have been ‘ticking along’ for several years, and were in need of a boost in the form of something new, to take them to the next level of engagement with the community. The Centre has long aspired to increase its focus on outreach to the local community – raising awareness and understanding of its work, and of the issues facing Refugees and Asylum Seekers here in London.
A winning combination?
The combination of a church needing music, music needing an audience, and projects needing change, gave rise to the ambitious plan to stage the first series of concerts in the church – ‘Music at St. Mary Magdalene’s’.
Following two successful series of lunchtime recitals featuring some of the most promising students and graduates from the London conservatoires, we felt brave enough to embark on our first series of evening concerts every Saturday in November 2009. As the church has no ready-made audience for classical music, it took a while for us to get to the stage where we were confident it could work.
A small organising group got together to plan the programme and invite performers. Having considered the potential popularity of all genres, we agreed upon mixed programmes – with a predominantly classical first half, and contrasting second half (with the exception of the orchestra).This way we hoped each concert would offer something for everybody, as well as making each evening less formal, and as inclusive as possible.
Profiling the projects
We decided to make the concerts free so as to enable as many people as possible to come but to invite donations as a way of fundraising for the three projects we want to support. Any proceeds will be shared between the Centre for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, the Paradise Project, and St. George’s Anglican Church, Baghdad.
All performers generously gave their time and talents for free, audiences were recruited by word-of-mouth - from the congregation, their friends and family, and posters and advertising were made and distributed by volunteers.
At each concert displays were set up with information and pictures of each project in action, which audiences were encouraged to peruse with a cup of tea or glass of mulled wine. There were also representatives from each project on hand to answer questions and explain more about their work. We hope that the leaflets and annual reports taken away will be read, and the word spread!
At the evaluation meeting in December, all involved agreed the series had been a successful first step in a project that has to continue. Lots of exciting plans for 2010 are in the air, including a concert designed especially for children, featuring pupils from Canonbury Primary School.
Challenges & triumphs
The main challenge was probably persuading people who had never been to a concert before, that there was nothing to fear! Our first audiences for the lunchtime concerts were small but built slowly by word of mouth. In November numbers ranged from thirty to fifty, despite pouring rain and tube closures on each one! Artists have been incredibly generous in these early stages, but as the project grows, the performance aspect will inevitably need to be put onto a professional footing. We hope that bringing high-quality music to new audiences and strengthening the pride in our community will be a cause that is recognised as deserving of support.
There were also several unforeseen challenges, most notably the last minute pulling out of our Santoor player, Farshad Mohammadi, - a former client whose performance had been eagerly anticipated by members of the Iranian Community Centre who were all planning to attend. After twenty four hours of frantic phone calls and emails, we ended up with not one, but three Iranian musicians – who met for the first time on the day, and gave a sensational performance of traditional Persian music. What had threatened to be a disaster turned out to be one of the highlights of the series!
The most important thing, when administration and organisation piles up, is to keep in mind the inspiration for the project. When this is present, obstacles no longer seem insurmountable, and problems become challenges to be overcome.
In one of his updates from Baghdad Canon Andrew White writes:
“It is wonderful to be back in Baghdad as usual. Each time I arrive I think the problems can not get any worse but each time they do. I wish I could speak of the enormity of the present difficulties but I can not. Yesterday was a very bad day, but today has been a Church day and it simply gets more wonderful every week. The people are amazing and full of love. It is indescribable to speak of the depth of the love of these people, they are simply wonderful”.
Such optimism in the face of such extreme adversity is an inspiration to us all.
Our top tips for others are:
Use your networks – word-of-mouth is the most effective form of advertising.
Don’t be scared to ask – musicians aren’t the prima donnas they’re often seen as.
Slow down and take time to enjoy the event yourself - if you’re happy you will communicate that to other people.
___________________________________
Written by Colette Joyce and Anna Hamilton from St. Mary Magdalene’s, Holloway Road.
For more information, email magcas@btconnect.com or visit the St Mary Magdalene Centre.