Join us for a candlelit & immersive musical evening designed by & starring mezzo-soprano Alexandra Achillea, with Ben Michaels on cello.

Alexandra's intention is to produce an anthology of deeply contemplative music, some with devotional content, to transport you in time and thought. The evening will be framed around contemplation, fragments, memory and the strange sense of time that the vaulted space creates.

The walls of the Garden Hall are mounted with fragments of 16thC stone from the house belonging to Sir Nicholas and Sir Francis Bacon. Music from the Elizabethan and Jacobean court will be woven into a programme combining contemporary and classical compositions, blending the very old with very new. There will be an exploration of what remains musically if we remove words and utterance - what remains if we look at music of the past and bring it into a contemporary context.

This evening will be an opportunity to feel transported and find deep peace in a month that can at times feel a little overwhelming. The music will last one hour without interval; mince pies and mulled wine to follow at the end and help bring you back to earth.

Alexandra is a Greek mezzo-soprano whose work spans opera, art song, chamber music, folk, and contemporary vocal performance. She has performed at Glyndebourne Opera, with the Greek National Opera, at Wigmore Hall, Snape Maltings, the Glasshouse International Centre for Music, and the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room.

Ben Michaels is a London-based British cellist known for his work across chamber repertoire, contemporary music, and collaborative projects. He often works alongside living composers to expand the solo and chamber repertoire for cello.

Doors open at 6:30pm, please take your seat by 6:45pm, music will commence at 7pm.

Please note: There are a fair number of stone steps and uneven floors throughout the house.

Ariving by car: Access from M1 (Junction 8) and M25 (Junction 21a). Please enter AL3 6AE into your GPS for the entrance at the Roman Theatre off Bluehouse Hill. Once at the gate enter AL3 6AH for the house, where you will be shown where to park.

Description supplied by the event organiser.