Lunchtime concert series returns to city centre church

The first concert, performed by outstanding Spanish pianist Antonio Oyarzabal, comes the day after the state funeral of our late Queen, and will be dedicated to her memory and preceded by a minute’s silence in her honour.

The programme, entitled “La Muse Oubliée” (the forgotten muse), is based on Antonio’s CD of the same name, which was the fruit of two years of research, and consists of music written by female composers, much of it ignored or undervalued until recently.

That will be followed by four more concerts featuring mainly classical music, including return appearances by Jill Crossland, and by “Dolce Flutes” a quartet of young flautists including former King’s School student Hannah Clark.

After a one-week break, there will be six more very different “jazz café” concerts with an eclectic mix of genres – jazz pianists and vocalists, Americana from Lexie Green, Latin guitar from Latino Sound, and on December 6, a first appearance at St John’s by Ukrainian born singer-songwriter Iryna Muha, whose hypnotic songs, accompanied by acoustic guitar or hurdy-gurdy, draw on East-European history and folklore but touch on universal themes: love and betrayal, life and death.

The concerts are free, although audience members are invited to make a donation.