Kensington Olympia Festival Comes to a Spectacular Close this Weekend
With singers of all abilities invited to join in a gala performance of Vivaldi Gloria
The Kensington Olympia Festival of Music and the Arts has returned for a second successful year.
The Kensington Olympia Festival of Music and the Arts – otherwise known as KOFMA – comes to a spectacular close this weekend at St Matthew’s Church, on the corner of Sinclair, Masbro and Fielding roads.
Tonight, Friday October 14, contemporary English poet Wendy Cope will entertain the audience from 7.45pm.
Wendy has attracted a dedicated following with her light-hearted verse and keen eye for the comical aspects of everyday life.
Wendy Cope pictured by Adrian Harvey
Wendy Cope OBE read history at Oxford University and taught in London primary schools for fifteen years. She has been a freelance writer since 1986, when her first book of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, was published. Her fourth collection of poems,Family Values, appeared in April 2011 and her prose volume Life, Love and The Archers in 2014. She has also written for children and edited several anthologies. She lives in Ely.
Then tomorrow, Saturday October 15, this year's festival will come to a close with a gala public performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria.
The festival organisers say: " We are inviting singers of all abilities to join us at St Matthew’s Church, Kensington Olympia for a day of rehearsals followed by a gala performance in the evening of Vivaldi Gloria.
"Whether you are a regular member of a choir, or you have not sung since you were in school, we would love to have you along. It is a fantastic opportunity to have some fun, meet new people, and give a top-class performance with excellent soloists.
"For those of you who would love to take part but are worried you are not up to scratch, do not fear – we are all very nice and it will be good fun and you should definitely come along. There will be a mixture of abilities, ranging from those who only sing in the shower to those who are happy to sing a solo at a prom.
" We are really excited to have an orchestra this year to accompany us. In addition to the Gloria, we will have Delmege Quintet performing Boccherini’s String Quintet in E Major and a selection of Italian Arias from our soloists.
"What happens on the day?
" It all begins at 1.30pm with registration. Rehearsal starts at 2pm and we will rehearse until 5pm, with a break for coffee and cake in the middle. Jeremy will lead us through the music step by step, preparing us thoroughly for our grand performance. There will then be a chance to pop along to one of our local gastropubs (Bird in Hand or The Havelock) for a quick bite to eat before we meet again for the 7.30pm concert start.
"In the second half of the concert, all of our hard work will come to fruition when we perform Vivaldi Gloria and we might end with Verdi’s Anvil Chorus and possibly a sing along Jerusalem. We then invite you and your families and friends to join us for a glass of wine at the back of the church."
Jeremy Summerly is a conductor, musicologist, and broadcaster. He studied music as an undergraduate at Oxford University and musicology as a postgraduate at King’s College, London. He is founder-director of Oxford Camerata and the Royal Academy Consort, co-artistic director of Oxford Baroque, and Director of Music at the church of St Luke’s, Chelsea.
He has conducted fifty original commercial recordings of music spanning nine centuries, and has conducted resident choirs and orchestras in locations as far afield as San Francisco, Melbourne, Helsinki, Tokyo, and Cape Town. He has edited four volumes of medieval and Renaissance music for Faber Music, has contributed to the new Cambridge History of Musical Performance, is a reviewer for BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and BBC Radio 3’s CD Review, and is Choral Music Editor for Rhinegold Publishing’s Choir & Organ magazine.
He has lectured at the Royal Academy of Music since 1989, where he has variously held the posts of Head of Academic Studies, Head of Undergraduate Programmes, and Sterndale Bennett Lecturer in Music. He is the Artistic Director of Mayfield Festival of Music and the Arts in East Sussex, and in September he will become Director of Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford.
For KOFMA’s full programme of events and to book tickets, visit the website.
October 13, 2016
