A family affair with Lynden Cranham at the Festival of Chichester

Cellist Lynden will be joined by her cellist son Tom Parker and her violinist daughter Emma Parker with commentary by Lynden’s husband, writer and broadcaster Roger Parker.

Between them they will evoke the sounds of an early Victorian music room in the church of St Peter and St Mary, Fishbourne on Saturday, June 15 at 4.30pm (followed by nibbles in the hall next door). Tickets from the Festival of Chichester.

Lynden explained: “I am a professional musician but I wrote a PhD which was about music in 19th-century London.

"There were so many music events happening in London ranging from the big outdoor events to the more intimate quartet evenings to the even more intimate events that were basically music family music room events where a young lady would display her talents and perhaps hope to find a husband. It was a way of cementing relationships between family members and also way the friends would bring musical instruments around.

“And I was thinking what could I do with this idea. The fact is that my daughter Emma is a violinist and my son Tom is a cellist and pianist. I just thought ‘Let's see if there's something we can do together.’

“I thought about the life of a professional musician and how we spend so much time performing concerts in big international concert halls but actually the concerts that are so much more meaningful are the more intimate ones that you play perhaps at a local level.

"You look out and you see people that you know. You're in a space that you know and you feel you're part of the community. When you have been playing in an area for a long time, as I have done, over a number of years and in lots of different ways you build up... well, a following is the wrong word but definitely a sense of community and it just feels so much more meaningful to play these more intimate concerts than it is to play in these big concert halls – concert halls with amazing acoustics but concert halls that don't have so much personal impact on you.

“During all the lockdowns St Peter and St Mary were very generous with their space. They allowed me to record the Bach solo cello suites there and so I have done a couple of concerts there as a thank you and then I wanted to do this which is obviously something different, much more romantic and sentimental but just as another way of giving back.

" All the proceeds will go to the church and there will be a little reception afterwards.”

Lynden studied with Jennifer Ward Clarke at the Junior Royal College of Music, with Douglas Cameron at the Royal Academy of Music, and subsequently with Maurice Eisenberg in New York and Christopher Bunting in London.

Tickets from the Festival.