'A Time for Peace' is, to us, a hugely important part of what we do. Once a month we pack up our instruments and take ourselves to St Martin-on-the-Hill, Scarborough - one of the most beautiful and complete Pre-Raphaelite churches in the country. We play gentle instrumental duets in the lovely Lady Chapel for an hour, interspersed with silence and the audience can come and go as they please. We've been doing this regularly for two years now, but the original idea came to us after the Brexit vote when we felt, deeply, the horrible polarising divisions rising in this country and wanted to address them by inviting people to simply sit together regardless of ideas or beliefs and be reminded of our common humanity through music offered in silence. We started the sessions in the local library, but Covid intervened; the idea however persisted and would not leave us alone. So in 2022 we began the relationship with St Martin's - a church which gave us a warm welcome and which moreover has a terrific cafe on the premises! We now have quite a number of regulars, you might almost call it a congregation....
We are interested in taking this idea further and sharing it with other musicians. It has proved a powerful and potent way of engaging with diverse groups of people and the sense of peace that is generated is palpable and very moving. If you are interested in hosting 'A Time for Peace' anywhere, please get in touch.