Music at All Saints'
For decades, All Saints’ has had a fine musical and choral tradition with an excellent robed choir, a superb Father Willis organ, and a range of recitals and concerts throughout the year.
Music is an integral part of the life of our church, and generations of singers have used their time here as a springboard into a lifetime of musical fulfilment.
We are affiliated to the Royal School of Church Music.
Our Director of Music
Antony Matthews BA (hons) LRSM
Having grown up in South London, Antony's love of music became clear from an early age when he was spotted at the piano imitating his father simultaneously playing the organ and conducting the choir! Organ lessons soon followed at school with the Rosemary Nayyar, and later with Nigel McClintock (then Director of Music at Croydon Parish Church), and it was not long before he was regularly playing at the family's church on a Sunday morning.
After studying at the University of Exeter with Paul Morgan (Organist at Exeter Cathedral) and at the University of Bristol with Dr David Ponsford, Antony spent a year working as the Organ Scholar at St Mary's Parish Church, Battersea, before taking up the new position of Director of Music at St Joseph's Catholic Church, New Malden. In January 2012 he was appointed Organist and Director of Music at All Saints'.
His recitals include St Michael and All Angels (West Croydon), Bournemouth Oratory, Christ Church (Woking), St Mary's Cathedral (Limerick), All Saints Church (Woking), and he has played Saint-Saens Symphony No 3 in Guildford Cathedral with Guildford Symphony Orchestra. As Organist to the Sutton Chorale he has toured with the choir extensively through the UK and Europe, including singing service at Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester and Bury St Edmunds Cathedrals in England, Wimborne Minster, and trips to Tavarnelle and Rome (including singing Mass at St Peter's Basilica) in Italy, Berlin, Bruges and Oostende, and Limerick and Cork.
Concerts and Recitals
As a large building in a prominent place at the centre of Carshalton, the church is regularly used for concerts and recitals – we have frequent visits from Carshalton Opera, Sutton Music Service, Carshalton Choral and any others to mention… amongst others. We also regularly have performers and groups showing their talents for Open House weekend in September, and the Advent Fayre at the beginning of December each year.
You can find out about the concerts coming up via the Events page on the website, and they are regularly advertised in our newsletter, which you can subscribe to via the link at the bottom of the Home page.
For groups considering hiring the church for a concert or recital, we have a versatile staging set which can be put out, bench seating for about 300 people in the Nave and Aisles (which is all moveable); we also have our own alcohol licence allowing us to run a bar for the interval! Visiting groups are able to make use of the organ or our fine Seiler piano – please note however that there is a slight difference between the tuning on both instruments, so you can’t use them together!
Enquiries from anyone wanting to use All Saints' for a concert should be made via the Parish Office in the first instance; before confirming the booking we will need to understand details of the concert you are proposing.