Even before you enter St Mary Abbots you can feel there is music in the air.  Just 10 minutes walk from both the Royal College of Music and the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington has been home to some of this country’s most notable composers.  Two are commemorated by blue plaques.  Sir Charles Hubert Parry lived at 17 Kensington Square and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford at 50 Holland Street.  Both were parishioners and it has been suggested that Stanford sometimes used to play the organ at services in St Mary Abbots.  These two, together with Sir Alexander Mackenzie, were instrumental in the revival of music in this country often referred to as The British Musical Renaissance.  Parry and Stanford were respectively Director and Professor of Composition of the Royal College of Music for large parts of their working lives and many of the great British composers of the 20th Century were taught by one or the other.  One of Stanford’s pupils was Sir Arthur Bliss, Master of the Queen’s Music from 1953 until his death in 1975.  He and his family lived in Cottesmore Gardens for a number of years and both his widow and daughter are still parishioners.  Parry and Stanford provide a further link between past and present.  Their College, the Royal College of Music, presents chamber concerts on Fridays during term time in St Mary Abbots, a much valued link between Town and Gown.

Singing in the choir during Parry and Stanford’s time was a boy by the name of Henry Curtis.  When his voice broke he moved to the back row as a Bass.  He continued in the choir until his death in 1965, unbroken service of 80 years.  He is commemorated by an inscription on the choir stalls.  During his lifetime he contributed generously to the cost of sheet music and left a bequest in trust which still defrays some of the running costs of the church’s music.

Curtis witnessed many changes in both the musical establishment and style.  On Sundays, up until World War II, there were 2 sittings for both Matins and Evensong at which 2 separate full choirs of men and boys sang respectively.  The style was hardly changed from that of the Victorian parish church with most of the service being chanted by the choir.  Anthems and canticles were only sung on special occasions and congregational hymn singing as we now know it was still developing.  In spite of St Mary Abbots being hit and damaged by incendiary bombs in 1944, choral services were resumed soon after the end of the conflict. The double sittings for Matins and Evensong disappeared and were replaced by a single Parish Communion, Matins and Evensong at all of which the choir sang.  Over time this has altered so that by the date of Curtis’ death the choir sang at Matins and Evensong only.  Women were introduced into the choir for the first time in the late 1940s,  initially to supplement the boys.  However, in a situation not unique to St Mary Abbots as a central London church, boys ceased to be members of the choir from the mid-1950s.  At present a voluntary choir sings at Parish Eucharist and a professional choir at Matins and other services.  The two most notable stylistic changes since the World War II have seen a return to the Eucharistic tradition of worship and a greatly increased hymn repertoire.

The concerts, referred to above, given by students from the Royal College of Music, were conceived some years ago by one of the Churchwardens, Dick Madge.  They provide a most important opportunity for students to hone their performance skills in both solo and chamber music.  While the students are on Easter and Summer holidays, concerts continue in a platform for young artists organised by  Denny Lyster.  In many of these concerts, solo organ music has been an important constituent.

Our Director of Music, Professor Mark Uglow writes:

    “St Mary Abbots has a challenging and growing musical schedule.  At the heart of a thriving
   borough, St Mary Abbots is a centre for all the community both as a historic church in which to
 worship and as a venue for concerts featuring the young artists of tomorrow.  The organ is central to
    both of these and is now in need of complete rebuilding to help enable St Mary Abbots to carry
                            forward its mission into the 21st Century.”