The popular lunchtime concerts arranged by Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Foundation Schools under the excellent guidance of Jill Alexander are back after a long break due to the Covid 19 pandemic. “We did not really plan to start again but the schools were so eager to go ahead, so here we are again,” says Jill Alexander, “and the first concert takes place 29 September at 1.30pm.”
“We have run these concerts since 2011. They were part of the Picture Gallery’s bicentennial celebrations and were only meant to last for a year, but they proved very popular with the audience, who enjoyed half an hour of music in the beautiful Christ Chapel next to the Gallery.”
The Foundation Schools, that is Dulwich College, JAGS and Alleyns also appreciated the opportunity it gives their pupils to show off their musical talents in front of a live audience. “There is also a moment of surprise as the programme is not known in advance, it could be anything from Bach to blues, a quartet or a full jazz band,” Jill explains.
The audience is mixed, some come regularly as they like the variety of music on offer as well as the enthusiasm of the young musicians. Others are lured in from the Gallery by the promise of a concert to enhance their enjoyment of its many wonderful paintings.
So far over 150 concerts have taken place since 2011 and in 2019 a new piano was installed in the Chapel to the delight of the audience and the musicians!
Do come along and enjoy half an hour of music played by young enthusiastic pupils from the Foundation Schools, thirty minutes away from the hurly burly of the post-pandemic new “normal”
There is no charge but there is a retiring collection.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:
Concerts take place at Wednesdays at 1.30 – 2pm
September 29
October 6, 13
November 10,17,24
December 1.
2022
January 12, 19, 26
February 9, 23
March 2,9,16
