- St Michael & All Angels extends cultural outreach with youth music programme
The Bedford Park Festival reached its grand finale on Sunday with a spectacular performance of Beethoven’s Mass in C for soloists, choir and full orchestra, in celebration of the first garden suburb’s 150th anniversary. You can see photographs here and it can be watched and heard on the church’s Facebook page.
St Michael & All Angels Church was full for the service, led by the vicar Fr Kevin Morris and director of music Jonathan Dods, with the Bedford Park Festival Orchestra and St Michael & All Angels Choir. The occasion included the London premiere of ‘Prayer’, a setting of the George Herbert poem by internationally acclaimed composer, Cecilia McDowall, who lives in Bedford Park.
“It was a wonderful occasion and a joyful climax to this year’s Festival, celebrating 150 years of Bedford Park” said Fr Kevin. “The Beethoven setting was the first orchestral Mass ever performed at the Festival in 1991, which itself was a major moment in our church’s musical development. One of my predecessors, Fr Jack Jenner, founded the Festival in 1967 to celebrate the arts, bring the community together and raise money for the maintenance of the church building – and it has been a central part of our mission of community and cultural outreach ever since.”
Thanking the performers and volunteers in his address to the congregation, Fr Kevin said: “To mark the 150thanniversary, we have extended our activities with special music events in the church and through our youth music programme in the Bedford Park Festival. On Green Days weekend we gave a platform to dozens of young singers from local schools and performers from The Basement Door charity, which trains young people for jobs in the music business.
“And our partnership with Pladis in Chiswick Park has set out to widen access to great live music in Chiswick. We put on three fantastic evening concerts with top young musicians and ‘rising stars’ from the Junior Academy programme at the Royal Academy of Music. They also performed for classes in local primary schools, gave workshops at Chiswick School, and put on an ‘Animal Adventures’ cushion concert in the church, which was attended by dozens of young children and parents.”
The service was followed by the traditional lunch for over 100 people in the Vicarage garden and the ever-popular Bedford Park Open Gardens event, ending with cream teas in the Parish Hall.
For those now suffering withdrawal symptoms, there is still the ‘fiendish but fun’ Bedford Park 150thAnniversary Quiz, with around 50 questions about people and events in the first garden suburb’s first 150 years. Printed copies can be picked up in the church or downloaded from the Festival website and entries close on Monday June 30th.
There are more prizes to come. In partnership with the Festival, Stagecoach Chiswick is offering six scholarships for a full term’s course this autumn. Applications close on Friday July 4th and the winners will be drawn by ballot.
St Michael & All Angels also runs the Chiswick Book Festival in September, including its children’s festival and Young Poets competition which this year attracted 170 entries from 18 schools. The winners will be announced at the prizegiving ceremoney on Friday September 12th.
Profits from this year's Bedford Park Festival will support St Michael & All Angels Church and its three 2025 charities: The Upper Room, helping the needy in Shepherd’s Bush; Crosslight Chiswick, which provides debt advice to individuals and families in need; and The McCabe Educational Trust, which supports a range of health and education projects in the Holy Land.
