Music at SJDK

Music is at the heart of our worship. Since their founding just over 10 years ago, SJDK’s young people’s choirs have grown to become one of the largest church choral programmes in the country. We have over 100 young people across three choirs from ages 5-6 to school leaver, singing in weekly rehearsals and regular services, with many more engaging with singing through regular activity in our church schools. We also have 30 adults active in our choirs.

Our choirs are invited to perform at major concert halls and cathedrals and take part in a yearly residency programme at St John’s College Cambridge, where they have also sung two joint evensongs with the chapel choir. We also provide free piano tuition to a number of the choristers, with opportunities to transition to the organ in due course.

Background to the Project: Our Social Impact

The area between Brixton, Camberwell and Kennington is one of Britain’s toughest places to grow up, often de-prioritised by local authorities and central government. Child poverty in these south London postcodes is higher than in 92% of the country; active rival gangs incite youth-on-youth violence; the Windrush scandal has heavily impacted the area – many locals are descended from Caribbean and African migrants and there is often a pervasive fear of family members being detained by the immigration services.

The opportunities we offer young people are centred on our choral activity, but go far beyond it. They come about because we are a church rooted in our community, with social impact and inclusion hardwired into our ethos from SJDK’s foundation in 1874. In a hugely diverse neighbourhood in terms of socio-economic environment, ethnicity and cultural heritage, and family circumstances, with high levels of multiple social deprivation, we know each young person’s background, and can support them on their individual journey with SJDK choirs. These journeys range from improved attendance and performance at school and beyond, being part of a supportive community, or a pathway to education at some of the UK’s best choral foundations.

A New Organ for SJDK

An organ is central to our musical education projects, both for accompanying choirs and teaching: it is the main instrument for public accompaniment of choral events and training our young musicians. SJDK’s current organ is, however, at the end of its life, now beyond repair. We have use of a temporary electronic instrument, but not having a working quality pipe organ does our young people a great disservice.

SJDK’s current organ was installed second-hand in 1958, as a stop-gap after the original Victorian instrument (pictured above, right) was destroyed in the Blitz. It had originally been built as a domestic instrument for a wealthy home and, from the outset, was recognised as unsuitable for the space at SJDK. It was intended as temporary, to be replaced no later than the 1970s.

Ongoing deterioration has been making the organ difficult and frustrating to play. It has not been a suitable teaching instrument during the entire time SJDK has had a youth music ministry – and much of it has been often unusable in the past decade. 50 years after it should have been replaced it required constant, expensive and necessarily temporary repair, to the extent that in late 2023 it was deemed to be inoperable.

Despite this, music at SJDK continues to thrive. Pre-Covid, there was a plan to raise considerable sums to build a new organ, which would have cost in excess of £2 million. Post Covid, due to our ongoing musical partnership with St John’s College, Cambridge, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to purchase the organ in the College chapel, so have revised our thinking. It is relatively new and of outstanding quality but not appropriate for that space – the College is purchasing an instrument more suited to the building.

We have agreed a nominal purchase sum of £30,000 for the organ; there are additional costs for removing it from St John’s College Chapel, altering it for our space and installation at SJDK, which total £1.1Million . The work will be carried out by the original builder, Mander Organs, and we plan to install the College organ at SJDK in 2025.

While this is a substantial amount for an inner-city church to find, we are confident we have a solution that will last for many decades – and for far less than the previous £2 million estimate for a new organ. Importantly, the impact that an instrument of this quality will have on our young musicians’ musical education and the social impact it brings, will be for a similarly long term period.

It is urgent and vital to the musical and community life at SJDK that we secure a new organ. At £30,000, this instrument is a gift to us. During its lifetime at St John’s College, the organ has been used for prestigious recordings, radio broadcasts with the world-renowned choir, notable concerts and recitals with some of the world’s greatest organists –it has pedigree.

Carrying on as we are is not an option: it will have a substantially negative effect on the credibility and viability of SJDK as an outstanding musical centre for young people – and the consequent adverse social impact that brings. We can’t teach young people properly with an electronic instrument and obviously we have the continuing upkeep and hire costs of the temporary organ. With the latter in place, we will not attract or retain long-term music leadership, which would have a devastating impact on the future viability of children’s choirs and quality of our offering.