University of Westminster to host a series of community concerts in Fyvie Hall providing access to music for all

Through the series, which will consist of three organ concerts and one early music ensemble, audiences will be able to come together to enjoy music in the heart of the University. 

The concerts will take place at 5:30pm on a Friday of each month and will allow people to experience a moment of calm as they wind down from the working week and relax into the weekend while also enjoying some refreshments. 

All events in the Westminster Community Concerts series are open to the public, but the free places are limited and need to be booked in advance. 

The first of the four concerts will take place at 5:30pm on Friday 28 April and will welcome three students from the Royal Academy of Music who have prepared a recital incorporating both the rare and recently refurbished 1934 Compton organ in Fyvie Hall and a trombone. The concert will begin with an organ solo by Jeremy Ng and will be followed by an organ and trombone duo played by Jason Tang and Andrew Cowie, respectively.

The second concert in the series will take place on the last Friday in May and will welcome Concert Organist Francesca Massey. Massey is a Freelance Organist, Choral Conductor and Music Teacher with 20 years’ worth of experience playing in cathedrals up and down the UK. 

At her concert in Fyvie Hall on 26 May, Massey will be performing Jubilatio by Anton Heiller; Sonata No 16 in G# minor by Josef Rheinberger; and Et Resurrexit (Theme, Fantasy and Fugue) by Kenneth Leighton. 

The third concert on 16 June will welcome Palisander, a quartet of four talented recorder players, Tabea Debus, Caoimhe de Paor, Miriam Monaghan and Lydia Gosnell. Palisander will play their programme Divorced, Beheaded, Died, which contains compositions from Early Tudor England. Attendees will get to enjoy Palisander’s signature blend of movement, spoken word; additional percussion and singing combine to create a unique historical concert experience.

Our concluding concert of the series will be performed by yet another award-winning Concert Organist, Jeremiah Stephenson. Throughout his career, Stephenson has performed both on TV and at many prestigious venues across the globe. As a Fellow and teacher at the Royal College of Organists, Stephenson is particularly passionate about inspiring young people to understand and appreciate the versatility of the organ as an instrument. 

All Concert Organists performing as part of the series will get the opportunity to play on Fyvie Hall’s rare 1934 Compton organ.

The organ includes some rare or indeed unique features, notably the ‘knee swell’ device for opening shutters in the top of the case to moderate the volume of the instrument and the massive wooden multi-pin plug to allow the console to be moved away from the body of the instrument. It is not known when the organ was last played or playable, before it was recently restored.

When Ethel Wood CBE, the daughter of Quintin Hogg, died in 1970, she left a bequest to the Polytechnic, which was later agreed to be used for the restoration of the organ. Tenders were sought from organ-builders experienced in historical restorations, and the contract was awarded to Taylor-Hammond Associates. The newly restored organ was inaugurated during the Fyvie Festival in October 2022.

Professor Andrew Linn, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said about the Westminster Community Concerts: “Musical performance has always been part of the cultural life of our university, and I’m looking forward to live music once again becoming part of the soundscape at Regent Street. The restoration of the Fyvie Hall allows us to become an increasingly significant performance venue in the heart of London, enriching the experience of colleagues and students and drawing a new generation of the wider community to the University.”

Find out more about the concerts and book your place.