The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music is an annual music festival held in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

History

The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music was founded in 2002 by Christopher Batchelor at

St Pancras New Church St Pancras Church is a Greek Revival church in St Pancras, London, built in 1819–22 to the designs of William and Henry William Inwood. Location The church is on the northern boundary of Bloomsbury, on the south side of Euston Road, at the ...

. Batchelor remains (2022) the artistic director. It takes place around the feast day of St Pancras on 12 May, being the patron saint of the parish and church.

Artists and repertoire

The festival now lasts nine days, and features new works by both established and new composers. It includes a

choral evensong Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. In origin, it is identical to the canonical hour of vespers. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which beca ...

broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and liturgical services and concerts all over London. In addition to St Pancras New Church, the festival takes place at churches including

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

Westminster Cathedral Westminster Cathedral is the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It is the largest Catholic church in the UK and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster. The site on which the cathedral stands in the City o ...

, the

Temple Church The Temple Church is a Royal peculiar church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of J ...

Southwark Cathedral Southwark Cathedral ( ) or The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, Southwark, London, lies on the south bank of the River Thames close to London Bridge. It is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwar ...

, St Paul's Cathedral, St Paul's, Covent Garden and

St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

. Established composers who have written works for the festival include

Michael Berkeley Michael Fitzhardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Knighton, (born 29 May 1948) is an English composer, broadcaster on music and member of the House of Lords. Early life Berkeley is the eldest of the three sons of Elizabeth Freda (née Bernstein ...

, Michael Finnissy,

Gabriel Jackson Gabriel Jackson may refer to: * Gabriel Jackson (composer) Gabriel Jackson (born 1962 in Hamilton, Bermuda) is an English composer. He is a three-time winner of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors British Composer Award. Fr ...

and

Cecilia McDowall Cecilia McDowall (born 1951 in London, England) is a British composer, particularly known for her choral compositions. Life and career McDowall read music at the University of Edinburgh, continuing her studies at Trinity College of Music, Lond ...

. Some years have a particular focus: in 2013 there was a series of works produced as a tribute to Philip Moore, the former organist of

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Arch ...

, and in 2021 a gala concert as a tribute to Cecilia McDowall.

Aims

The principal aim of the festival is to showcase performances of recent and contemporary liturgical music and organ music.{{Cite web, url=https://lfccm.com/about/aims/, title=London Festival of Contemporary Church Music: Aims, date=March 2013 , access-date=28 April 2022

External links

* https://lfccm.com

References

Classical music festivals in England Music festivals in London Music festivals established in 2002