Parish Church hosts lunchtime concert

Tom Hicks and David Williamson

Rochdale Parish Church played host to a lunchtime concert this afternoon (Saturday 28 September) giving students from The University of Manchester and The Royal Northern College of Music a platform to perform.

The concert saw David Williamson on Violoncello and Tom Hicks on Pianoforte perform a variety of music for the audience. Their performance included:

• Bach – Prelude and Fugue in F-Sharp minor Book 1
• Respighi – Notturno
• Piatti – Caprice No 2
• Rachmaninov – Cello Sonata in G Minor

Director of Music Phillip Lowe described the concert as “absolutely fabulous”.

Concerts of this nature have been running for several years and first started as a fundraising event to raise money for the church organ.

Phillip added: “People gave money for the organ so we thought these concerts was a good way to show it off and give something back.”

St Mary’s, the sister church to Rochdale Parish Church, also hold similar concerts on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday evenings.

Phillip added: “The numbers are building up which is always good.”

Talking about his performance, 20 year old piano player Tom Hicks said: “I think it went pretty well. We’ve been playing together for a few years now.”

David Williamson, started playing the cello at age seven and said: “Playing these small intimate concerts is nice because you can connect with the audience more.”

Both musicians said they would welcome the opportunity to play in Rochdale again. “It would be very nice to come back,” added Tom.