Christmas Megamix: Brixton Chamber Orchestra's final gig in its Christmas Estates Tour 2025

Brixton Chamber Orchestra & Matthew O'Keeffe at Stockwell Park Estate Community Trust

Last night (Sunday 21 December 2025), Brixton Chamber Orchestra's Christmas Estates Tour 2025 came to an end at Stockwell Park Estate Community Trust, the last of eleven free gigs to venues that included community halls across the borough as well as the historic Streatham Place Theatre. Under its director Matthew O'Keeffe, the orchestra performed an eclectic 70-minute set to a packed house, which was standing room only.

We began in fairly sedate style with O'Keeffe's arrangement of O Tannenbaum, before the orchestra launched into a very creditable account of Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, sounding remarkably vivid in the relative confines of the Community Trust's hall.

Then, just to turn up the heat, they moved into the Lover's Rock Megamix, a lively medley created by orchestra member Lewis Daniel that featured Marcia Aitken's I’m Still In Love, Ken Boothe's Everything I Own, Carroll Thompson's I’m So Sorry, and Chronixx's Skankin Sweet. Tunes that definitely had the audience humming along. Something of the Christmas theme continued with music from the film Home Alone, John Williams's song Somewhere in my Memory, which even had the orchestra members singing along at one point.

One of the orchestra's regular members is jazz-bass player and composer Misha Mullov-Abbado, he couldn't make the gig, but the orchestra played his new piece Donna Margerella. Inspired by two local characters, it brought the musical style vividly into the present. And just to show that the orchestra's taste is truly eclectic, the evening also included a delightful short piece by Elgar, The Valentine from music he wrote for dances at his local lunatic asylum.

We had two very contrasting vocalists. First off, a female vocalist gave us slow-jazz-infused version of Adolphe Adam's O Holy Night, plus Massive Attack's Paradise Circus. Then rapper Martian B2A joined them for some of the orchestra's speciality, Grime Orchestrated, in this case his new track Goldeneye. And hearing the music performed like this, with full orchestral backing is quite something. At the end of the set, there was an open mic session when Martian B2A was joined by a group of other rappers who brought the hall alive.

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The final songs all had everyone dancing, literally or metaphorically, with O'Keeffe's arrangements of Celia Cruz's La Vida es un Carnaval and Daryl McKenzie's Merry Christmas Everyone. Mullov-Abbado's arrangement of Jocelyn Brown's Somebody Else's Guy brought the set to a close, though I got the impression that everyone really wanted the party to continue.