Concerts at St Peter's

St Peter's Church is a popular venue for a variety of daytime recitals and evening concerts.

There are regular concerts by a range of different performers including chamber choirs, orchestras and individual recitalists. St Peter's is also one of the venues for the biennial St Albans International Organ Festival and Competitions.

Following completion of our building work to replace the nave floor we are now able to take bookings for concerts for 2025/ 2026. The church is a beautiful, light space ideal for concerts and performances and now has flexible seating to accommodate up to 300 people in the nave.

We hold Lunchtime recitals on Wednesday at 1pm every week during term time and these raise money for Rennie Grove Peace Hospice. More information available here.

If you would like more information about holding a concert at St Peter's please contact Carolyn in the church office on c.alexander@stpeterschurch.uk.com

Upcoming Concerts

Saturday 30 November at 5.30pm

International Organ Festival Concert

Matthew Martin

Charles Racquet (1597–1664)
Fantaisie

JS Bach (1685–1750)
Canonic Variations: Vom Himmel hoch (769) 5 vss

Matthew Martin (b.1976)
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier

Aarre Merikanto (1893–1958)
Präludium und Fuge e-moll

Francis Jackson (1917–2022)
Scherzetto Pastorale

Joseph Ahrens (1904–1997)
Hymnus: Veni creator spiritus (7 versets)

Percy Whitlock (1903–1946)
Elegy (Symphony in G minor)

Matthew Martin
Prelude and Fugue

Matthew Martin is Precentor and Director of College Music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He read Music at Magdalen College, Oxford, before studying at the Royal Academy of Music with David Titterington, and afterwards with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris with support from the Eric Thompson Trust. From 2015 to 2020 he was Director of Music at Keble College, Oxford, and Artistic Director of the Keble Early Music Festival.

At Gonville & Caius he directs the acclaimed college choir and has recorded a series of three discs for Linn Records since his arrival in 2020. The latest, an account of Michael Haydn’s Requiem with the Academy of Ancient Music, is due for release next year. The first, motets by Peter Philips and Richard Dering, was received to critical acclaim.

‘Under the marvellously well-judged direction of Matthew Martin … everything seems fresh and vital’ (Gramophone).

Matthew spent much of his early life immersed in cathedral music and in 2010, after six years as Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, he decided to focus more on composition. Since then he has been commissioned to write music for many leading ensembles. He won the Liturgical category in the 2013 Ivors Composer Awards, and the first album of his choral music (Jubilate Deo) was recorded by Daniel Hyde and the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford.

He has written for the Cheltenham Music Festival (Trumpet Sonata) and The Tallis Scholars (Lamentations of Jeremiah). His Rose Magnificat for Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & Players won the Choral category in the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards. In 2019, he was asked to write a festival anthem (In the midst of thy Temple) for the choir of Westminster Abbey, marking the 750th anniversary of its refounding, and a test piece for organ (Triptych) for the 2019 St Albans International Organ Competition.

Most recently, he was commissioned to write a new carol (Angelus ad Virginem) for the 2023 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, and is currently working on a major new work for The Tallis Scholars to be performed as part of Miller Theatre’s 2025-26 Early Music series in New York.

The St Albans International Organ Festival presents monthly International Concerts on Saturdays throughout the year.

Entrance and programme are free, with charitable donations invited to support future events presented by the St Albans International Organ Festival.

Saturday 7 December at 7.30pm

Voix De Vivre Concert

Neil McKenzie - Choral Director

Hannah Gill - Organ

Requiem - Gabriel Faure

Der Abend - Richard Strauss

Motets - Anton Bruckner

with works by Stanford and Cecilia McDowall

This Hertfordshire based choir has performed a broad range of challenging repertoire to

critical acclaim, from Palestrina to Poulenc and Scarlatti to Schonberg.

Their founder and musical director Neil McKenzie was a long time member of the BBC Singers.

Voix De Vivre follows their example by regularly including contemporary repertoire as an

important feature of their programming.

Find out more at www.voixdevivre.org

Book tickets here