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A powerful evening ahead at the chapel
PREVIEW AN EVENING OF WEST END, OPERA AND CLASSICAL
David Power has always had an ear for music.
Having taught himself rudimentary piano by the age of 10, he went on to spend the following six decades, and change, tinkling at the keys whenever the opportunity arose – whether in a hospital in Lambeth or a Korean war zone.
On Saturday, he will lend his experience – and the contacts he has built up during his colourful life – to a very special evening of opera, classical and West End music at Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead.
The recital, which boasts an impressive line-up of West End and international talent, has been organised to raise funds for The Leukaemia and Lymphoma Unit at UCLH and Marie Curie Hospital in Hampstead.
Mr Power, who lives in Covent Garden, was motivated to organise the event when illness twice struck close to home.
He said: “I was a London cabbie for years, and one my friends from that time has a 12-year-old son, Jack, who’s currently suffering from a relapse of leukaemia.
“It’s just such a terrible thing to see someone so young suffering so much, so I thought I’d better do something to raise funds and help the work that goes on in UCLH and at the Marie Curie.”
Mr Power, 74, lost friend and film-maker George Harrison Marks to cancer in 1997.
“George was a real character – the first man to show nudity in a British cinema!
“He loved music too, and after he died, up in the Marie Curie, the old gang got together and sang him a farewell song at his funeral.”
Among the performers lined up for the Rosslyn Hill recital is pianist Geoffrey Saba, who has performed at international festivals from Australia to the Middle East, and at St John’s Smith Square.
Joining Mr Saba are Lindsey Day and Immogen Roose, both of whom are opera singers with a pedigree in West End musicals, John Maver (piano), Roy Reeves (ukulele), Angela Sweeney and Jessica Rosen. Rachel Starkey and Natalie Webb have appeared in West End productions of Kiss Me Kate and Guys and Dolls.
Though Mr Power never reached the heights of concert pianist that he once aspired to, he has spent his life surrounded by, and involved in, the performance of music.
“I grew up in the East End when times were tough,” he said.
“Like a lot of families, mine didn’t have money to spend on things like music lessons. But since pianos were common in houses in those days, I at least had an instrument to play on at home.
“I had my first lesson when I was 10 years old, but for years before that I’d sit down, listen to the radio and then practise playing back the tunes I heard.”
By the age of 14, he was playing piano in the Golden Hinde bar in Hanbury Street in the East End.
“A few years later, when the Korean War started, I enlisted and was sent overseas – sending the extra pound back home to my old mum made all the difference.”
Reminiscing about those days, Mr Power, who recently received his War Veteran’s medal, added: “My colonel in the army loved music. He used to get me to play any time we got near somewhere with a piano. I even played in a hotel in Singapore when the Korean prime minister was in the audience.”
Eleven years ago, while he was being treated for emphysema at St Thomas’s Hospital, in Lambath Palace Road, he even tested the healing power of music by playing the hospital’s grand piano for patients and staff.
In recent years, Mr Power has continued playing music and has even started composing his own works, some of which he has recorded.
“I like playing and listening to simple music, music you can relax to and that doesn’t overpower you,” he said.
With the quality of performers and the positive attitude and goodwill of Mr Power driving the recital forward, an excellent and worthwhile evening is in store.
And don’t forget, it’s all in aid of a very good cause.
n David Power presents an Evening of Opera, Classical and West End Music at Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead (beside Bar-Room-Bar) on
Saturday at 7pm.
Tickets cost £12 (£10 concessions) and are available at the door or telephone 020 7240 4421. All proceeds for the evening go to The Leukaemia and Lymphoma Unit, UCLH and Marie Curie Hospital, Hampstead. Pianist Geoffrey Saba, who will be performing at Rosslyn Hill Chapel
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