A NEW series of music events featuring the organ at St Mary’s Parish Church, in Barnard Castle, has been lined up for the coming.
In recent years, the church has organised a series of weekly lunchtime recitals featuring visiting musicians throughout the summer.
Church organist and director of music Annette Butters said the new look programme aimed to make the organ – which was installed in 2007 – more accessible and appealing to new audiences.
“This year we are including the organ in more community events and showing a few different sides to this fantastic instrument,” said Ms Butters.
“Apart from some talented visiting recitalists, we have included a school workshop based on local Teesdale legend, the rather nasty Peg Powler; we will also include the organ in community singalongs and other not so traditional organ music events.”
Events begin on Wednesday, May 23, when the church will host soprano Martha Hayward and organist Matthew Lazenby.
They will perform a varied programme featuring extracts from opera and musicals plus folk and organ music from 6pm to 7pm.
“Their short, informal concert is a great way to de-stress after work and enjoy a glass of wine,” said Ms Butters.
Other highlights include a roadshow on Saturday, June 2, when Organ World will bring the latest in digital organs for anyone to try.
Also in June, a musical spectacular is planned with Barnard Castle Brass band teaming up the St Mary’s Community Choir.
It coincides with the town’s 1940s weekend and will feature music from that era right up to the present day.
Weekly recitals will take place during July
“Later in the year, the Highside Singers community choir will be giving a concert with Keith Dale, assistant organist at Hexham Abbey,” added Ms Butters.
“We are delighted to welcome our visiting musicians this year and we look forward to sharing our organ for future events.”
Admission to all church organ events and recitals is free, although donations will be gratefully received.
A leaflet giving details of all organ related events during the summer has been produced and details are also available on the church website.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
