The Great English Anthem: Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea at the Chelsea History Festival

From 24 to 28 September 2025 it is the Chelsea History Festival with a wide range of activities at the National Army Museum, the Chelsea Physic Garden and the Royal Hospital Chelsea. On the opening evening, 24 September 2025, William Vann and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea will be giving a concert, The Great English Anthem. The evening is a chance to hear some favourite English anthems in two historic venues as the event begins in the Great Hall and moves on to the Wren Chapel.

The programme consists of music by Elgar, Gibbons, Handel, Holst, Parry, Purcell, Stanford and Vaughan Williams, along with Imogen Holst, Charles Wood, Samuel Sebastian Wesley and Janet Wheeler. It will include include Handel's Zadok the Priest and Parry's I was glad accompanied on the Wren Chapel’s organ (organist Mark Zang).

The Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea is a professional choir that sings Choral Matins in the Wren Chapel at the Royal Hospital Chelsea every Sunday at 11am and provides the music at carol services, weddings and other events at the Royal Hospital. The regular choir of 12 singers is enlarged for major concerts, such as this occasion.

The image on the flyer displayed here is part of Sebastiano Ricci's fine painting of the Resurrection in the half dome of the apse of the Chapel.

Further details from the Chelsea Pensioners website.

Sundays at the London Sketch Club: concerts from students and alumni of the Royal College of Music in their historic studio

The London Sketch Club

The London Sketch Club was founded in the late 19th century as a club for professional artists and illustrators. Today the London Sketch Club is still going strong and open to both professional and amateur artists with members, and non-members, enjoying weekly life drawing and portraiture classes at the club’s historic studio in Chelsea. In 1957, the Club moved to its current home in Dilke Street , with its magnificent studio which was built for Victorian portrait painter John Collier. The studio walls are decorated with silhouettes, some brought from the two previous premises, of Club presidents dating back to the early years which demonstrate its rich and illustrious history.

They also run regular concerts in the studio space, and on the last Sunday of the month The Sketch Club hosts a performance by young musicians, including students and alumni of the Royal College of Music. 

On 15 June, they welcome emerging young American-Russian pianist, historical keyboardist and collaborative pianist/répétiteur Paul Mnatsakanov, an alumnus of the Royal College of Music, to perform Schumann's Carnaval. Further concerts include further alumni of the RCM including cellist Carys Underwood in Bach's Cello Suite No. 4 and music by Malcolm Arnold and Edmund Finnis, Italian pianist Antonio Morabito in Scarlatti, Respighi, Chopin and Liszt including Sonetto del Petrarca Op.104 and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15, and baritone Peter Edge with pianist John Whittaker in music by Whittaker alongside poetry by Anthony Pinching, a retired clinical immunologist (and poet).

Full details from the Sketch Club's website.

With Helena Dix in top form, bel canto fireworks illuminate La straniera, a Bellini rarity given a welcome outing by Chelsea Opera Group

Bellini: La straniera - Helena Dix
acknowledging applause at Chelsea Opera Group performance
Cadogan Hall (Photo: c/o Helena Dix)

Bellini: La straniera; Helena Dix, Thomas Elwin, Georgia Mae Bishop, Dan D'Souza, Chelsea Opera Group, Stephen Barlow; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed 1 June 2025

Bellini's second big hit; a rather strange story brought alive by the bel canto ardency of Helena Dix finely supported by a terrific line up of talent

La straniera was Bellini's fourth opera, coming after the success of Il Pirata at La Scala in Milan moved Bellini from a local celebrity in Naples to a national celebrity. For La Straniera, Bellini was working again with the librettist of Il Pirata, Felice Romani. Bellini and Romani would go on to collaborate on all of Bellini's subsequent operas except for his final one, I Puritani. Romani is regarded as the best Italian librettist between Metastasio and Boito, he wrote for everyone but was incredibly busy. The partnership with Bellini was not without problems, and following Il Pirata you sense Bellini taking time to hit his stride.

After La straniera, Bellini and Romani would revise Bellini's second opera as Bianca e Fernando to mixed results. Their next collaboration, Zaira was a failure and much of the music ended up in I Capuleti e i Montecchi which was an unqualified success. After this came La sonnambula and Norma and the rest, as they say, is history.

As for La straniera, it premiered in 1829 at La Scala, Milan going on to be performed all over Italy as well as in London, Vienna, Paris, New York and Lisbon. The last known performance seems to have been in 1875, and the opera was only revived at La Scala in 1935. 20th century performances remained rare, often linked to a particular soprano. Stagings seem to be even rarer and Christoph Loy's 2013 production for Zurich Opera has had a couple of revivals. In London, Opera Rara presented the work in concert in 2007 in association with their recording with David Parry conducting and Patrizia Ciofi in the title role.

On Sunday 1 June 2025, Chelsea Opera Group gave Bellini's La straniera a most welcome concert performance at London's Cadogan Hall. Stephen Barlow conducted, with Helena Dix as Alaide, known as la straniera, Thomas Elwin as Arturo, Dan D'Souza as Valdeburgo, Georgia Mae Bishop as Isoletta, Will Diggle as Osburgo, Thomas D Hopkinson as the Prior and Kevin Hollands as Count Montolino.

A Choral Celebration of Queen Mary II returns with Chapel Choirs of the Old Royal Naval College and the Royal Hospital Chelsea at Chelsea History Festival

A Choral Celebration of Queen Mary at Old Royal Naval College

The Chapel Choirs of the Old Royal Naval College and the Royal Hospital Chelsea are combining forces again in an historic commemoration of the life of Queen Mary II under music director Ralph Allwood and William Vann. 

The programme debuted earlier this year at the Old Royal Naval College [see my review] and now returns on Thursday 26 September in the chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. As before, the programme includes music by John Blow and Henry Purcell for Queen Mary’s coronation, birthday, and funeral, along with George Frideric Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum, written for her successor to the English throne, Queen Anne.

The concert is part of the Chelsea History Festival which runs from 25 to 29 September 2024. The festival is a collaboration between three Chelsea neighbours, National Army Museum (founded in 1960 and in a building on the site of the old infirmary of the Royal Hospital Chelsea), Royal Hospital Chelsea (founded in 1682) and Chelsea Physic Garden (founded in 1673).

This year's festival also features the launch of the Chelsea Heritage Quarter, which brings together four remarkable institutions, the National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Chelsea, Chelsea Physic Garden and Cadogan Estates which has its origins in Sir Hans Sloane purchasing the Manor of Chelsea in 1712  and which was then developed by Sloane's son-in-law the first Earl Cadogan in the later 18th century. The Chelsea Heritage Quarter aims to tell a unique story of London and Britain from 1660 to the present day. 

The festival includes a wide variety of talks and lectures [see website] along with walking tours and a new exhibition in the Stable Yard of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The Stable Yard is an architecturally significant Grade II* listed building, designed by Sir John Soane when he held the post of Clerk of Works at the Royal Hospital from 1807 until his death in 1837. Soane built the stables between 1814 and 1817, and they remained in use until the 1960s when they were converted into workshops and offices. Thanks to a National Heritage Lottery Fund grant, the Stable Yard will open this autumn following a major restoration project. The Stable Yard includes an exhibition of the history and stories of the Royal Hospital, a new shop, cafe and a regular programme of events.

Information about A Choral Celebration of Queen Mary from the website.

Music while you dine: Pizza Express Classical Song Series is back at the Pheasantry, Chelsea

Pianist William Vann is back with a further song series as part of Pizza Express Live at The Pheasantry in Chelsea. The three-concert series opens on Tuesday 12 September 2023 when William Vann is joined by soprano Carolyn Sampson for a programme of French song including Ravel's Shéhérazade setting free-verse poems by Tristan Klingsor inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite, Milhaud's Catalogue des fleurs setting seven flower descriptions by Lucien Daudet, Fauré's Cinq Mélodies de Venise setting poems by Verlaine which Fauré began writing in Venice, and Poulenc's La Courte Paille, which sets children's verse by Maurice Carême and which Poulenc wrote for the singer Denise Duval and her young song. The programme is completed by songs by Poldowski and Satie. Further details from the Pizza Express Live website.

Further ahead, Vann is joined by mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately for an evening of English song by Rebecca Clarke, Madeleine Dring, Herbert Howells, John Ireland, Elizabeth Maconchy and Vaughan Williams on   10 October 2023, and by tenor James Gilchrist on 7 November for songs by Ivor Gurney, Herbert Howells, Ivor Novello, Roger Quilter and Robert Schumann.

Doors open at 6.30pm with the show at 8.00pm and you can choose to simply go for the show or have a pizza beforehand. Details from the Pizza Express Live website.