Essex String Quartet Christmas Concert in Hornchurch – On Tuesday the 14th of December the Manor House String Quartet was invited to give a concert as part of Havering Council’s ‘Music for a Winter’s Night’ series at Langton’s House in Hornchurch, Essex. We were booked by a terrific gentleman by the name of Mark Etherington who saw the potential of the hall (as well as the potential audience) for chamber music concerts and who made us very welcome on the night.

Here is a video for ‘Deck The Hall’ from our CD:

The concert consisted of carols which appear on our ‘I Saw Three Ships and other carols’ CD as well as an assortment of other uplifting Christmas favourites. All pieces were announced and it was a format that worked extremely well with the audience. In fact I spoke with many audience members who found that their enjoyment of the music was greatly enhanced by a little background information as well as making them feel part of the whole experience!

The evening was concluded with a rendition of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ with the audience participating by singing ‘Five Gold Rings’ when it occurred. As the formation of the room lent itself to an audience layout that resembled three sides of a square (with us in the middle) we faced outwards to encourage the three ‘sides’ to sing out with gusto! All the audience shook our hands as they exited and a wonderful evening was had by all.