His Place Community Church in central Hastings made a bid last year to the National Heritage Lottery Fund and won funding for historic building repairs and, with the re-opening of the Henry Ward Hall, to provide a community-based music heritage venue. 

Saturday 1 July marks the formal launch of Hastings Music Heritage Hub, and among other groups invited to perform on this special evening is Hastings Philharmonic Choir. Also included will be representatives of Hastings Music Festival, and it is hoped that Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition and HPO will also be featured. The HPC will be performing excerpts from Mendelssohn’s Elijah. 

His Place is a free church (no denomination) and a registered charity. It is run by Christian volunteers who welcome people of all faiths and none on their journeys of spiritual and mental well-being. It provides a friendly home and affordable café to many community groups, often working with vulnerable people. 

It operates from the Grade II-listed former Robertson Street Congregational Church, which was built in 1885 and is a significant presence in the Trinity Triangle area of central Hastings. The interior retains many of its original features and the large galleried worship space, which seats up to 700 people, is a strikingly beautiful venue with a superb acoustic for unamplified music. 

Along with saving the building, the project seeks to preserve and celebrate the musical heritage of the church. From the 1880s to the early 1970s, the Robertson Street Congregational Church was at the forefront of community efforts to provide free and affordable music in Hastings. It ran choirs for all age groups, nurtured many vocal and instrumental soloists, and hosted festivals, competitions and concerts. 

Make a Joyful Noise, the project’s musical heritage component, will research and preserve this history through creating an online music heritage hub and a programme of heritage-themed music workshops and celebration events. Choir officials Lucy Cradduck, Lin Westcott and Elspeth Knights have started working with the Hub and have already lodged some of our archived material there.

It will be a great pleasure for the Choir to be part of this fantastic revival, and we hope to see you there.

Make A Joyful Noise, Saturday 1 July, 7.30 pm at His Place, Robertson Street. All welcome.

They claim to be the first fully professional orchestra in Hastings since the 1930s when the Hastings Municipal Orchestra was based at the White Rock Theatre, itself a national centre for classical music and favourite recording studio for the Decca Records. This year the HPO have at least one concert a month at either the White Rock Theatre or Christ Church in St Leonards.

Perhaps slightly more on the radar is the biennial Hastings Piano Concerto Competition. Next month sees a special Prizewinners’ Gala Concert at the White Rock with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Shunta Morimoto and Mariamna Sherling return having thrilled the capacity audience with their performances in the final of the 16th Hastings International last year. 

The Competition evolved from the of Hastings Music Festival in the 1930s. It has become internationally-renowned for young concert pianists. Of last year’s 360 applicants from global auditions, more than 40 came to compete in Hastings. Their prize: the opportunity to perform with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on the two-night final, and a first prize of £15,000. Plans are already in hand for the 2024 Competition.

As part of the Piano Concerto Competition the indefatigable Sarah Kovitz provides space at her ‘stately’ home, Fairlight Hall for regular recitals. As she says: “I think we are blessed with choice for a regional location where 50 per cent of our potential audience is the sea!  The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the iconic London orchestras, has taken Hastings to its heart and comes now as a regular visitor to a town that for 40 years was a classical music desert.”

Opera is also very much part of the Hastings’ scene. Barefoot Opera strive to make it accessible, and elsewhere on this page we carry a piece from their director Jenny Miller on her philosophy. But Barefoot do not have a monopoly: there’s also Opera South East, based in Hastings, and one of the few companies in the region that regularly performs opera with full chorus and orchestra. 

They attract established singers and musicians as well as young professional performers at the start of their career. At their heart is a chorus of enthusiastic and friendly amateur singers under professional music and artistic direction. 

Other events are also much in evidence, including the upcoming Hastings Musical Festival with its greater emphasis on young people. The Young Instrumentalist of the year competition is in mid March.

Also in this special section, Victoria Kingham reviews a recent concert by the Fritz Brothers and the multi-talented violinist Max Baillie – who is also the inspiration behind the regular St Leonard’s Concerts, an eclectic mix of classical Jazz and electronic genres. 

So then, no shortage of ‘serious’ music available locally; and if you can get tickets, don’t miss the Gala Concert at the White Rock, when last year’s competition winners will play Beethoven’s dramatic and complex 4th concerto and Rachmaninov’s heartrending Variations on a Theme By Paganini. This promises to be an unmissable evening.

Cavern in the Town

The Sussex Studio (downstairs White Rock Theatre) becomes the Cavern Club for the day on April 2 for the annual Beatles Day. More than 300 musicians, singers and dancers perform songs from the entire Beatles collection in a wide variety of styles to raise funds for local charity, the Sara Lee Trust. Organisers say all three stages will see continuous performances for 11 hours straight, “so if you’re looking for an excuse to party, reminisce or simply be entertained – this is the event for you!”

Performers who would like to take part can sign up here.

Perfect Symmetry

Fresh from gigs at Brighton’s Verdict and Hastings’ Pissaro’s, Fabulous Red Diesel announce the release of their latest single: Symmetry – due out on 12 March, but Ms Kitty says it’s available as a free download “as a thank you for your support”.

Re REEF

The White Rock Studio also hosts Glastonbury rockers REEF, on 16 April, as part of an extensive UK tour. Since their formation in 1993, REEF have sold in excess of 3 million albums worldwide, with 9 UK Top 40 singles and 6 UK Top 40 albums. They also penned what is arguably one of the biggest rock songs of the ‘90s in their George Drakoulias-produced Top 10 hit: Place Your Hands.

Blood Over the Tracks

Bill Kenwright’s “legendary, award-winning production” of Willy Russell’s international hit musical, Blood Brothers, returns to the White Rock Theatre stage for one week only from Tue 4 – Sat 8 April with Niki Colwell Evans and Sean Jones continuing to star in the iconic roles of Mrs Johnstone and Mickey Johnstone. Blood Brothers tells the “captivating and moving tale of twins separated at birth, who grow up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences.”

Musical Extravaganza

Support the performers as they take part in one of the biggest and best competitive festivals in England – the Hastings Musical Festival.  Speech, Drama and Mime is February 26 – March 1; Dance section starts on Sunday 5 March;  Instrumental returns on 8 March; Primary Schools Orchestras are on Friday 10 March; Singing begins on13 March with the ever-popular Choirs Day on Friday 17 March; Young Instrumentalist of the Year will be on Saturday 18. 

Full details here.

Creative Jobs 

The Pauline Quirke Academy is opening a new academy in Bexhill on Friday afternoons and looking to expand its pool of arts facilitators. They’re interested in hearing from creatives who can deliver workshops in Musical Theatre, Drama or Film. And people who might be interested in a longer-term weekly position or wish to be considered as part of their portfolio of teachers who “love working with children and young people”. There are also opportunities for theatre makers or drama facilitators. 

 jobs.pqacademy.com/job/musical-theatre-teacher-pqa-bexhill