Singing through the Church's year

On the eve of the country’s first lockdown in March 2020, Sara Wood – Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church – called upon her assistant & daughter Victoria (soprano), husband Tony (alto), son Jonathan (bass) and long-time friend and faithful chorister Malcolm Stork (tenor) to meet at the church. The purpose was to record what they all assumed would be a few weeks’ worth of music to broadcast on YouTube in the absence of any services taking place. That first ‘Lockdown Session’ ended up becoming the first of many, as restrictions stretched out far longer than anyone had foreseen.

 

Through the early Lockdown of 2021, and after the infamous cancelled Christmas of 2020, the quartet was reduced to a family trio. But despite this, and with the blessing of Father Nick Plant, Sara and her singers soldiered on, distanced and masked as required, providing Cookham with a selection of much-needed hymns, anthems and readings to keep that unmistakable Holy Trinity sound alive through the long months of choral silence in the nation’s churches. When the country needed spiritual fulfillment the most, their offerings were brought to visual life by Andra Rigby, crafting online video vignettes which guided Cookham through the sights and sounds of the church’s year. In this concert the Lockdown Quartet - hopefully standing a little closer to each other this time around - will take the audience through the wonderful variety of music that mark the changing church seasons; an opportunity to hear music, mostly sacred but some secular together with readings in the company of friends, and all with no internet connection required. (Jonathan Wood)