Music at St Mary's

The Church choir

We boast a choir of 14 adults plus a Junior choir forming a full 4-part choir. We are affiliated to the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) and are currently working on their Voice For Life program.

The choir sings weekly at the Sunday morning service and we put on occasional Choral Evensongs and other special services and concerts. Last year we performed Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Allegri's Miserere and Victoria's Magnum Mysterium mass among many other things.
This year we have already sung evensong at St. George's, Beckenham and will be performing Stainer's Crucifixion on Good Friday. There will be a Choral Evensong after Easter, keep an eye out for the date.

This year sees the anniversaries of four major composers' births: Mendelssohn (200^th), Purcell (350^th ) and deaths: Haydn (200^th ) and Handel (250^th). We will be performing works by these composers throughout the year with Handel on Easter Sunday, Mendelssohn in a special Choral Evensong on the 10^th of May and Haydn at Harvest.

Junior Choir
Last year 3 of the junior choir received their Bronze Deanery awards as well as winning prizes in a local choir competition. We hope to continue work towards the Bronze and Silver award's and the RSCM Voice for Life scheme.

There are several things choristers can gain from being in a choir:

Free musical training
Free Christian Training
The opportunity to make new friends and contacts.
Feeling of satisfaction and achievement
A transferable skill that you can use for the rest of your life.
Under 16s reading ability, speech fluency in languages, team working, social skills, memorising capacity, time management skills, learning ability, problem-solving ability, ability to handle performance pressures (stress), artistic ability, and neatness have all been shown by research to improve from being in a choir.
Youngsters get a small financial reward for weddings - a welcome supplement to pocket money.

The choir is a good social environment for both the children and adults

Junior choir practice is 7:00pm on Monday nights where we are working through the Voice for Life Scheme and Diocesan Bronze awards.
Adult choir practice is at 7:00pm on Friday evenings in church.

If anyone would like further information about the choir or would be interested in joining the choir please contact the choirmaster.

The Church Organ

The Organ is a rare Father Willis built around 1865 by the top builder of his day. At that time it cost Ł400 to build, and still plays and sounds as good as new thanks to refurbishment in 1999 by N. P. Mander with the aid of lottery funding.

For the specification and photographs of the organ please visit the National Pipe Organ register and search for index number N08478.