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We offer daily services and a creative programme of talks, events and concerts. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate.
Sunday 6 April 6.30pm St Pancras Church
Join the music scholars of St James’s, Piccadilly as they celebrate women composers throughout the ages.
Wednesday 16 April 6:30pm
In this special collaboration for Holy Week, St James’s Piccadilly brings together the music of composer Rachel Chaplin and spoken word presented by The Revd Lucy Winkett.
St James’s hosts inclusive services and a cultural programme. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate.
St James’s is a place to explore, reflect, pray, and support all who are in need. We are a Church of England parish in the Anglican Communion.
We host a year-round creative programme encompassing music, visual art and spoken word.
We offer hospitality to people going through homelessness and speak out on issues of injustice, especially concerning refugees, asylum, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ issues.
St James’s strives to advocate for earth justice and to develop deeper connections with nature.
We aspire to be a home where everyone can belong. We’re known locally and globally for our unique history and beauty, as well as faith in action, creativity and the arts, and a commitment to social and environmental justice.
We strive to be a Eucharist-centred, diverse and inclusive Christian community promoting life in abundance, wellbeing and dignity for all.
St James’s Piccadilly has been at the heart of its community since 1684. We invite you to play your part in securing this historic place for generations to come.
The work of St James’s, it costs us £5,000 per day to enable us to keep our doors open to all who need us.
New walkways, a restored courtyard and re-landscaped gardens will provide fully accessible, beautiful spaces for everyone to enjoy as well as improving our environmental performance.
St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
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Wednesday 16 April 6.30pm
A meditative concert for Holy Week, with music by Rachel Chaplin and spoken word presented by Lucy Winkett. Featuring gospel singer Alison Beck.
St James’s aspires to be a place where all can belong, and where every person’s gifts and identities are welcome and celebrated. We are committed to improving the accessibility of our services and events, both in our church building and online.
To support accessibility, we are pleased to offer free tickets for carers. If you are a carer attending with someone you support, please use the promo code CARERFREE at checkout to claim your complimentary ticket.
Tickets
Standard general admission £10, concession £5
The hour-long meditative concert features celebrated gospel singer Alison Beck and a 7-piece ensemble of piano, string quintet & trumpet.
Rachel Chaplin’s music opens up a calm and contemplative space into which familiar texts have time to resonate and reflect, bringing listeners into a fresh interaction with the passion story. The concert features songs from her debut album, ‘Music from an Inner Space’, described by BBC Radio 3’s Hannah French as ‘beautiful and powerful songs, better than any medicine’. From the piano she leads an ensemble of outstanding classical musicians, colleagues from her orchestral life (she is also a professional oboist and a member of English Baroque Soloists).
Rachel Chaplin
Rachel Chaplin is a classically-trained instrumentalist and composer. She released her debut album, ‘Music from an Inner Space: Psalms & sacred songs’, last year. As an oboist Rachel works with leading orchestras in the UK and abroad, including as principal oboist of English Baroque Soloists and the award-winning ensemble La Serenissima. Rachel trained at Cambridge University, the Royal Academy of Music and Leipzig Hochschule für Musik, and holds a doctorate in the instrumental music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Formerly a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music, she teaches oboe at Trinity Laban College of Music.
“Rachel Chaplin’s music is an overflow of her wonderful soul. It is intentionally ‘sacred’ in its expression, and opens a space within and around us to encounter something we so often miss within the busyness and distraction: the melody of our own soul, responding.”
Brian Draper, author, speaker, contributor to BBC Radio 4 Thought for the Day.
www.rachelchaplinmusic.com
Alison Beck
Northumbrian-born, London-based musician Alison Beck is a jazz and gospel vocalist, composer, improviser and workshop leader. As a member of the London Community Gospel Choir, she recorded choir vocals for Madonna and Ellie Goulding, sang live at the Brit Awards with Justin Timberlake, and performed for the Queen’s televised national birthday celebration. With Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir, she has performed with Mica Paris and co-produced Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir’s groundbreaking gospel oratorio ‘The Resurrection’, which was broadcast on BBC Radio.
As a jazz vocalist, Alison has performed at leading venues including Ronnie Scott’s, The Vortex, Union Chapel and The 606 Club and is known as an expressive, talented improviser. Her string of credits as an in-demand vocalist include gigs with genre-defying innovators The Heritage Orchestra, Kamasi Washington (at the BBC Proms), World Champion beatboxer Bellatrix and composer John Featherstone.
