2024 SELO/South East London Mind Relaxed Concert

We were excited to share our second Relaxed Concert in partnership with South East London Mind and their Wellbeing Choir back in June 2024. The concert took place again at St. Michael and All Angels in Beckenham. We would like to say thank you to the church for being such a warm, welcoming and accessible space to hold our relaxed concerts in.

This time around we were pleased to have players from across the woodwind and strings in the orchestra and to also invite members of the Welcome choir alongside the expanded Wellbeing Choir! We believe around 30 choir members joined us for the occasion.

The orchestra performed a selection of pieces from our July 2024 concert programme including, Puccini – Chrysanthemums and Wolf – Italian Serenade and the woodwind also performed Gounod – Petite Symphony (1st mvt). The choir shared a number of uplifting and eclectic songs from Paloma Faith to Eric Clapton. The highlight of the concert was a special joint performance with the orchestra of ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting.

We were pleased to publicise the concert more widely this time and thank our wonderful audience for all of their kind donations, through pay-what-you-decide tickets on the door and towards tea and cake. We were pleased to raise £120 in profits to support the brilliant work that South East London Mind do, supporting our local community.

You can see the concert in full here

“The orchestra pieces were wonderful choices and really soothed, moved and relaxed everyone.” Choir leader

“Relaxed concerts are very important to me as a community event. SELO is a community orchestra and relaxed concerts are inclusive  to all the community from the very young to the other end of the spectrum and socially as well.”  Orchestra member

Past events – 2023 SELO/ BLG Mind Relaxed concert

We were excited to organise SELO’s first relaxed concert in collaboration with Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich Mind as the highlight of our 2022/23 charity partnership. It took place on the Sunday 29th January at St Michael and All Angel’s Beckenham, with performances from SELO’s string orchestra and BLG Mind’s Singing for Wellbeing choir. 

SELO string players performed pieces including Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Britten’s Simple Symphony, whilst the choir performed a beautifully eclectic collection of songs, including Harbour by Anna Tabbush, You’ve Got A Friend by Carole King and some traditional songs from South Africa. The concert concluded with a joint performance of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, kindly arranged by SELO cellist Tony Albuquerque!

SELO was delighted to host this event, to collaborate with BLG Mind and to welcome new audience members. We would like to thank everyone in attendance who generously donated towards the cake, we raised over £200 for BLG Mind, which will go towards continuing to support the brilliant work that BLG Mind do, including supporting musical activities for the BLG Mind community.

“I really enjoyed listening to the orchestra – I love but never listen to classical music and I thought it was amazing” – choir member

“What a special and uplifting experience. The promise of a ‘relaxed’ setting drew in a diverse audience, including beloved regulars, rambunctious toddlers and those who wondered what on earth they were doing at a classical music concert. In this atmosphere, everyone quickly felt united by a love of music and love for fellow human beings (I for one had to fight back tears during Tony’s poignant arrangement of Over the Rainbow). All of the SELO players felt very privileged to come together with BLG Mind for this event” – orchestra member

“I liked how relaxed it was and that kids were able to roam around – it was really friendly, not formal.” – choir member

“As BLG Mind has expanded in recent years, it was great to have an event that brought everyone together from service users to senior staff and family.” – choir and staff member

“Thanks for such an inclusive heartwarming concert today – beautifully allowing everyone to share our harmonious community connections.

Harmonious heartstrings plucked and warmed – softening my heart to my toes.” – audience member