* UPDATE 160416: the next Music On The Rise concert will be by the Peridot Duet (harp and flute) in the church hall on Saturday 30 April 2016 at 6.30pm. 

ANOTHER North London church is edging towards becoming a part-time music venue as a series of concerts gets under way.

St Mark’s at Dalston E8 is not adopting just yet the high-profile church/gig concept of Islington’s Union Chapel or Clapton’s St-John-at-Hackney but… well, there just aren’t enough parishioners to fill the rows of pews. Music is one way to defray the costs of a massive Victorian space.

There are good acoustics, and slowly St Mark’s vicar, the Rev Joshua Zvimba is making use of that.

The Rev Josh, a lover of Mozart and his ilk, wanted concerts at the church, which gave an opportunity forw musicians Alice Purton and Kasia Ziminska to present the talented and stylish Silk Street Sinfonia in the first

of a series they called Music On The Rise (a wordplay locals will get).

Purton told Loving Dalston how taken they were with the church: “The acoustics of the venue, its size and location, as well as its beauty, mean that we could see a chance for a new concert series.

“Kasia and I attend many performances and have the chance to find those really exciting performers, whether more established or just starting their careers.

“We are also planning double-bill concerts of different small groups, in the hope of enticing wider audiences to come to something they might not have seen before.”

At the first concert Loving Dalston was revelling in the sound and sight of a lively orchestra that, by switching soloists for every movement, managed to revive that staple of telephonic queues, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Some of the solos would have impressed even Nigel Kennedy.

David Altheer 231115

* Saturday 28 November 2015, 6.30: Barbican String Quartet and Chagall Ensemble; Tuesday 15 December 2015, 6.30, Silk Street Sinfonia

* Music On The Rise aims to present one concert a month at St Mark’s church, St Mark’s Rise, Hackney E8 2NJ (wheelchair access), usually on a Saturday. Tickets on the door £10 (£7 in advance), £6 concessions. Tickets will always be available on the door. Wine and healthy nibbles included.

* Backstory: Making things better

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