Evening of Words & Music with Matthew Rice and Pavel Timofeyevsky

Held in partnership with the National Churches Trust, there will be a piano recital by acclaimed Russian pianist Pavel Timofeyevsky and a talk about churches by noted architectural writer and designer Matthew Rice at St Paul's Church in Covent Garden next Wednesday, 1 October.

Drinks and canapés will be served, giving you a chance to soak up the wonderful atmosphere of this beautiful 17th century 'Actors' Church'.

Pavel Timofeyevsky is a one of the most versatile young musicians of his generation. A pianist and composer, Pavel began his music studies at the age of six at the Gnessin Music School in Moscow. In 1995 he joined the Purcell School of Music in London, where he won a number of prestigious awards including the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year award. From 2002-2008 he studied at the Royal Academy of Music, and he has been the Musician in Residence at St John's Church in Notting Hill since 2009.

Pavel has performed in many venues across the UK including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, and St. Martin- in-the-Fields Church, and to wide acclaim in Paris, Barcelona, Moscow, St Petersburg, Calcutta and Mumbai. In September 2014 Pavel will make his American debut, which will include a recital at New York's prestigious Merkin Hall.

Matthew Rice is a designer and architectural writer. A regular contributor to the Country Life magazine, he is the author of many beautifully self-illustrated books on Britain’s architectural history including Village Buildings of Britain, an illustrated survey of Britain’s village building styles to which HRH Prince Charles contributed a foreword, Building Norfolk, an illustrated history of Norfolk's buildings up to today, and Rice’s Church Primer, an illustrated explanation of language of architecture in Britain’s churches, from the restrained Norman style of William the Conqueror to the gilded excesses of the Baroque.

Matthew is the Managing Director of his wife, Emma Bridgewater's, pottery company. The couple live in Oxfordshire with their four children. Matthew's talk will be 'The Unlovable Church', an insight into the wonderful churches, featured in his Rice’s Church Primer, which can be found in areas less favoured, where support is hard to find.

During the evening Matthew Rice will be doing a book signing, and there will be a raffle to win a private tour of Winchester Cathedral and afternoon tea in the Cathedral Refectory for two people, together with a meal and a night’s accommodation in Winchester.

Doors open at 5.30pm for a 6.30pm start. Carriages at 9pm.