The History of Trunch Concerts

Trunch Concerts were started in 1997 by Cellist and Conductor Roy Abrams (pictured conducting his orchestra), at St.Botolph’s Church. He retired to Trunch having been a professional musician and teacher.  Seldom will a retired musician give up playing for good and he therefore sought the opportunity to work with the local community to promote concerts in an historic Norfolk Church. To enable this to happen, he even put his own grand piano in St Botolph’s.

From small beginnings with musical friends and playing three concerts a year, the project changed from friends playing music into a project to raise money for the Conservation and Restoration of the church fabric, which became a crisis when the Quinquennial Inspection of 2001 revealed two very large and growing cracks in the church tower.

The following work was completed:

Roy Francis Abrams
(1929 – 2019) 

  • sIn 2005 the tower was secured from splitting.
  • In 2010 the chancel roof was repaired.
  • The historic 1808 Wm Gray organ was restored in 2012.
  • In 2014 cloakroom and kitchen facilities were installed. 

Roy Abrams was later joined by a local musician John Mason. Concerts, organised from the very beginning under the auspices of the Council of Parish Churches, continued to be an important feature of the music scene in Norfolk. 

Since the beginning of Trunch Concerts, the most adventurous local musicians readily performed at St.Botolph’s and St.Nicholas,  including several projects with the Norfolk Composers Group. Past professional performers include The London Schubert Players (twice – courtesy of the European Union Cultural Fund), The London Mozart Players & Chloe Hanslip (NNDC/Orchestras Live), The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (twice) with Alison Bury and Anthony Pay (NNDC/Orchestras Live), The Chapel Choir of Selwyn College (Cambridge) with Sarah MacDonald.  Other top professionals have also generously given recitals for little more than expenses. These include Anda Anastasescu (Debussy Prize Winner, Paris), Darragh Morgan (Professor of Violin, Guildhall School), Bruce Vogt (Professor of Piano, University of Victoria, Vancouver), Andrew Roberts (violin, OAE), Suzanna Hurrell (soprano, now Royal Opera Covent Garden), David Dunnett (organ, Norwich Cathedral), Jane Gillie (violin, OAE) and Stephen Rowlinson (violin, LSO).

Since 2017, Trunch concerts have been held not only in St Botolph’s, but also in St Nicholas’ Church of Swafield, which is also part of the Trunch Group of Parishes, and is situated one mile from the village of Trunch. 

At the end of  2017 season John Mason left the Trunch Concerts team as he moved from Trunch. Since then, the variety of concerts has expanded. Not only classical musicians, but also touring theatre companies, jazz musicians began performing in Trunch and Swafield. Concert audiences have grown significantly.

The Trunch Concerts committee continue to run the concerts on behalf of the Trunch Parish (covering Trunch, Swafield & Bradfield Churches) and aim to continually raise the high standards established over the first 20 years, exploiting the wonderful acoustic of our churches and maintaining a balance between different styles to meet the varying musical tastes of the public.

Proceeds from concerts held in St Botolph’s will continue to be donated to St Botolph’s Church restoration projects. Since 1998 the concerts in St Botolphs have raised in excess of £44,000 towards restoration projects with the total concert proceeds exceeding £46K.

The Church and community would like to thank the audiences, performers and those who offer other services of support for their generosity.