St Marys Old Church

ENSEMBLE:N16

2009-09-01T11:05:00.002+01:00

Jazz singer Szjerdene: May 24 2009

2009-04-17T21:52:00.009+01:00

Szjerdene may be young – but, in her own words, she is a product of the past. The 20–year-old singer, songwriter and musical all-rounder has forsaken the road of modern, commercial R&B, and has honed her love of the old school jazz sound, while putting her own twist on the genre.

May 24 2009 £8pm St Mary's Old Church
Tickets £10
Concessions/ children £5
Tickets to be bought at the door.

Szjerdene draws inspiration from some of the greats – Etta James, Sarah Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and Marvin Gaye, to name but a few – and is currently working on her EP, entitled 'Tailored', which promises to be a soulful, bluesy fusion of sounds both old and new.

Her experience and tenacity bely her tender years. She had penned more than 20 original songs by the time she was 17 and has already graced the stages of some of the leading London Venues, including China Whites and Ronnie Scott’s. She has also stayed close to her roots, exploiting the platform provided by some of Hackney’s hotspots – from the Hackney Empire, to Shoreditch House. Come here her unique sound and support our arts project.

Taste the Caribbean: April 25

2009-04-06T21:37:00.007+01:00

Come join us for an evening of Caribbean calypso, cuisine and entertainment and raise funds for our community arts space.

April 25 2009 6:30 - 10 pm
St Mary's Church of England School, N16

Tickets £12 (two for £20)
Concessions/ children £6

Food, one drink and musical entertainment all included in the ticket price.

“Tales from the washing line” children’s puppet show: 28 March

2009-02-23T22:45:00.011Z

Keep the little ones entertained and help raise funds for our community art space. Come see On the Other Hand Puppet Theatre Company’s two environmentally themed stories of waste and recycling.

Sat 28th March 11 am
St Mary's Old Church
£5 per ticket or £18 per family (one parent and 3 children, two parents and two children or three grown ups and one child)

The first puppet story focuses on an Inuit man who decides to dump his rubbish into the ocean each time he goes fishing, until he receives a warning from the Spirit of the Arctic.

The second story is about an underused, and thus lonely dustbin. Happily, he meets a friend and, together, they set about tackling a horrible Litterbug.

Recycling is practised in front of the audience, with several of the puppets made during the show from everyday objects. The message to children and parents is clear: look at some of the things we often throw away, and explore what can be made with them.

Clever puppets, lots of humour, sharp writing and memorable characters make this a very satisfying show for audiences from 3 and up.

Baroque flute and harpsichord concert: March 2

2009-02-22T23:00:00.005Z

Listen to Soile Pylkkönen play flute baroque works by Telemann, C.P.E. Bach, and Kleinknecht and Pawel Siwczak, on the harpsichord and raise funds for our community arts space.

Monday 2nd March 7:30 pm
St Mary's New Church
Donations welcome

Finnish-born Soile Pylkkönen gained her Masters of Music degree with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. She has performed and recorded with such internationally acknowledged ensembles as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Gabrieli Consort and Players. She also regularly performs with her ensemble Four Temperaments, with whom she was awarded the Royal Academy of Music Leverhulme chamber music junior fellowship 2007-2008.

Pawel Siwczak, has played for the Gabrieli Consort and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Eclectic folk sounds: 22 February

2009-02-01T22:13:00.012Z

Listen to the eclectic folk sounds of singer-songwriters Foreign Slippers and Karen Grace and harpist Susannah Evans and help raise funds for our community arts space.

Sunday 22nd Feb 8pm
£10 on the door/£5 concessions and children - includes a glass of wine

Foreign Slippers (aka Gabrielle Frödén pictured above) makes music of unnerving quality. Hailing from Norrkoping, Sweden her captivating debut 'Oh death' is caught up in tales of longing and mortality. Foreign Slippers ushers you into a world of pump organs, music boxes and blackbirds from which you will be unwilling to return.

Introspective and personal, hopeful and intoxicating, Karen Grace’s songs take you on a poetic journey from farmland to funerals, from defiance to dedicated persuasion. Her enchanting voice has been likened to a ‘butterfly with guts’, and her sound-world involves moments of delicate finger-picked guitar with touches of bewitching violin and the magic of a full-sized harp. An emerging artist on the London music circuit, she recently played in The Blue Room Bar in the O2 Complex, and at The Greenbelt Festival last summer and recently released her debut album ‘Find me’.

Susannah Evans was a member of Harrow School for Young Musicans in 1992 and was principal harpist with their Philharmonic Orchestra for four years. Susannah was principal harpist for the Durham University Chamber and Symphony Orchestras from 2000 to 2003. She now performs with various orchestras and choral societies, and accompanies Karen on her debut album ‘Find Me’. www.susannahevans.co.uk

An evening of William Byrd Music: Sun 25 Jan 2009

2009-01-14T15:57:00.002Z

Get your own - Open publication

Watch this space for further events in February and March!

Find out more...

2008-11-25T13:15:00.002Z

Get your own - Open publication

Find out more about the project plans and proposals in our first newsletter - Autumn 2008

Next Event - Launch of Arts @ St Mary's

2008-11-25T11:23:00.006Z

An opportunity to find out more about the plans for this new community arts facility.
Everyone is welcome
Arts @ St Mary's
St Mary's Old Church
Tuesday 25 November
7pm - 8.30pm

7pm - The Old Church - Welcome - Revd Jonathan Clarke
Performances
“I’d give anything” & “Look Inside”Performed by Step by Step(Bridie McGrail, Esme Davies, Mychelle Scott, Rebecca Verlander, Siobhaun Hollis, Year 9 Stoke Newington School & Sixth Form)

Songs written and composed by Esme Davies
7.30pm - refreshments, question and answers - New Church Rooms

Acoustic music by: Daisy Smith & Alice Parrington - Year 10 Stoke Newington School & Sixth Form

The Plans

2008-11-25T11:18:00.001Z

St Mary’s Old Church is a well loved building in Stoke Newington. Dating from the 16th century, with its warm red brick and overgrown graveyard it gives that corner of Clissold Park the feel of a small country village.

But this small church, which was once the hub of the community, is now underused and falling into a state of decay and disrepair. It was replaced in the 19th century by the much grander St Mary’s New Church, which stands opposite.

With the prospect of major fundraising needed to simply upkeep the building, the Parish began exploring ways in which the old church might not only pay its own way but become a centre of use by the whole community of Stoke Newington, irrespective of religion, race or gender. The result is the proposal for an arts facility that is accessible by all groups of Stoke Newington society.

The vision builds on the current use of the Old Church as a venue for musicians who are attracted to its atmosphere and good acoustics, despite the lack of heating or toilets. Without sacrificing atmosphere it will create a comfortable, flexible space where community groups, professionals and students from the school can create, perform and display their work. With resident theatre company Common Air carrying out education work with young people, and a centre manager working to reach out to marginalised groups, the Arts Centre will be a venue that welcomes all sections of our local community.

With plans, planning permission and development grants in place we are now entering a major fundraising phase to raise the £1.5m the project will cost. From January, 2009 fundraising events are being staged in both the old and new churches on the first Sunday of every month under the banner Arts @ St Mary’s. We will be continuing to consult with local residents and visitors to Stoke Newington with regards the sorts of activities they would like to see at the new centre and welcome comments and feedback either in person, via the Parish office or email: stmarystokenewington@btinternet.com

St Mary’s Old Church Development Committee

Why bother having churches?

2008-11-06T13:06:00.004Z

Why bother having churches? It’s maybe not a question that crosses your mind very often, but when you've got two expensive listed buildings to keep up it's quite a pressing issue. And no, it’s not because no-one comes (come along Sunday morning and see) – it’s because they’re expensive to keep up, expensive to heat, and apart from Sunday mornings they’re not used very much.

But then - when people come into the New Church (the big one) the reaction tends to along the lines of 'what an amazing building'; it is quite an extraordinary space. When you spend as much time in there as I do, it’s easy to forget that most people don’t often go into places with as much self-confident Victorian grandeur as GG Scott’s mini-cathedral. (You can almost hear the brief for the job: ‘Make it imposing! Make it dramatic! Make it bigger than anyone else’s church for miles around!’)

The Old Church gets quite a different reaction – variations on 'how cute / quaint'. In particular, people love the smell, which is slightly odd as it's the smell of damp and gentle decay. I don't think anyone would be happy if their home smelled like that. But it's one way of thinking about churches, as a sort of repository of aesthetic experiences. Not one that appeals to me, but I suppose it might appeal to those who would like churches to be museums of some sort.
I don't think of myself as a curator.

So what else might churches be for? I'm sure they're not just for religious people to do religious things, because that's not what I think religion is about. If religion is worthwhile at all (which I know is a big 'if' for a lot of N16 readers), it's because it helps people (religious or not) to live fuller and more human lives. In which case churches are there, or should be there for people to do anything which will lead to that end. Churches shouldn’t just happen on Sunday mornings – they should be full all week of whatever it is the local community needs to do to enhance its life.

That’s the way churches used to be: the nave, the main bit, was the people’s place. It was only the sanctuary which was reserved for religious stuff. Then pews came along, and the whole space became pretty much unusable except for sitting and listening. Did yo know that Stoke Newington’s first school is the little room to the left of the Old Church’s main door? It was built in the 1560s, and naturally enough it was added on to the only public building in the parish, the parish church.

But if that’s what churches are for, it means an end to the romantic mustiness, I'm afraid. You just can't have 'museum' churches and places which serve the community. It's active/accessible/healthy & safe OR quaint/damp/old-fashioned. You can't do both at the same time. Which would you rather?

Revd Jonathan Clark,
St Mary's

This article was first published in N16 magazine.