Lunchtime concerts every Friday, raising funds for our
beautiful 205-year-old Grade II listed building
Concert: 12.30-1.15pm - £5 suggested donation on the door - cash or card
Tea, coffee & biscuits available in the church hall from 12 noon
on a pay-as-you-feel donation basis
Our Friday lunchtime concerts are diverse - mostly classical but also contemporary, jazz and folk, with many showing off our beautiful Steinway piano.
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The performers are a mixture of top local talent and touring musicians from across the globe. These affordable concerts are the perfect way to spend your Friday lunchtimes, enjoying a rich variety of music within the reverberant walls of our beautiful Grade II listed church, with your donations helping us to maintain our welcoming sacred space in the cultural heart of the city.
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Enjoy a hot drink before the concert starts, browse our home-made and repurposed cards which are sold to raise funds for the church, and get to know your fellow concert-goers.
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Wheelchair accessible venue.
Everyone welcome.
Listings: October 2025 - January 2026
Leaflets covering 2-3 months of concerts are available at the church and can be found at various other venues and community buildings in and around the city.
To receive updates by email about our Friday lunchtime concerts, including changes to performers, dates, times or programmes, plus occasionally other performances or events which may be of interest to you, please email buc@brightonunitarian.org.uk and ask to be added to our lunchtime concert email list. These emails are usually sent out no more than 5-6 times per year
You can unsubscribe from this list at any time and your details will not be used for any purpose other than to keep you up to date with our concerts and other performances here at Brighton Unitarian Church.​
If you are interested in applying to perform in our Friday lunchtime concert series, please contact Cat Stead, Church Administrator/Venue Manager, email: buc@brightonunitarian.org.uk or telephone (01273) 696022.
3rd October
Martin Smith (euphonium) accompanied by Helen Ridout (piano) performs music from his award-winning and multi-streamed album “The Lyrical Euphonium”, including works by Cecilia MacDowall and Antonio Capuzzi, with a touch of Elgar, Florence Price and Charles Villiers Stanford.
10th October
London-based Italian pianist Simone Alessandro Tavoni returns to Brighton Unitarian Church with a programme of works by Bach, Chopin and Schubert.
17th October
Classical elegance with a personal touch: in a slight change to the previously published programme
Neil Crossland (piano) presents a richly varied programme featuring Beethoven’s iconic Moonlight Sonata, Three Minuets by Puccini and some of his own recently completed compositions - Three Meditations, Op.52, Reinventing the Invention, Op.76 (Inspired by Bach’s Inventions) and Suite of Contrasts, Op.75.
24th October
Singer/harpist Magdalena Reising joins forces with jazz guitarist Shane Hill to form the duo Blue Café Duo. They play an unusual combination of folk/popular and classical pieces with a jazz twist. Today's concert will be covering the Great American Songbook through to folk and to haunting originals mainly from the Duo's latest album - 'Songs from the Heart'.
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31st October
Add to Jazz Playlist: The Brighton-based John Lake Quartet will take on the mantle of the Radio 4 style “Add to Playlist” music programme with a set of jazz tunes - some original, some standards - with a linked theme of composition.
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7th November
Stabilis Duo: Pianists Viola Lenzi & Isabella Gori showcase four hands repertoire, featuring arrangements of well-known classical pieces including Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Schubert’s Fantasie, two of Grieg’s Norwegian Dances.
14th November
Jenny McCalmont and Louise Gledhill (Sopranos) with Andrew Robinson (Baritone) and Howard Beach (Harpsichord) perform quartets, trios and duets by Handel, Monteverdi, Taverner and Purcell.
21st November
“Timeless”: acclaimed songwriter Robb Johnson and award-winning poet Roger Stevens present a set of original songs written in the style of 1940s and 50s jazz classics. Robb’s guitar and Roger’s piano will be enriched by the sax and trumpet of celebrated actor and musician Sian Allen.
28th November
Lewis Kingsley Peart (piano) presents “Impromptu”: Salon pieces from Schubert and Sibelius.
5th December
Belladonna: Sue Mileham (soprano), Jane Plessner (clarinet), Nicola Grunberg (piano) speed us on the way to Christmas with some beautiful seasonal music, to include Peter Cornelius’ Three Christmas Carols, Scarlatti’s Andante tranquillo from ‘A Christmas Cantata’, Mozart’s Laudate Dominum and other gems!
12th December
Mathew Sear, composer and guitarist, performs a diverse programme of music ranging from Villa-Lobos and Django Reinhardt to his own recent works. This concert highlights the richness of the guitar across two centuries of creativity.
19th December
Nick Andrews (piano) is joined by Amar Clark (organ), Daniel Vincent (bass baritone) and Charlie Bloch (soprano) in a concert featuring Bach, Couperin and Purcell, as well as some fine Christmas music.
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9th January 2026
We launch our 2026 lunchtime concerts in style with popular local pianist and BUC favourite John Bruzon who presents a romantic programme of music by Chopin and Liszt.
16th January
Melody Magpies (3 sopranos and a talented pianist) offer a pick-n-mix of melodic gems. This will include a wide variety of art songs from home and abroad plus opera arias and ensembles covering a range of eras - Baroque to Romantic and later. Some works will be familiar, others perhaps less so; the common factor in all the music is melody.
23rd January
BAFTA award-winning pianist and composer Joss Peach returns with Parliamentary Jazz Award-winning saxophonist and composer Josephine Davies to explore the wonderful music of Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek.
30th January
We welcome back the Plaegan Trio who will perform Tchaikovsky’s monumental and heart-felt Trio, written during 1881-2 ‘in memory of a great artist’, his close friend and mentor Nicolai Rubinstein.
If you are interested in applying to perform in our Friday lunchtime concert series, please contact Cat Stead, Church Administrator/Venue Manager, email: buc@brightonunitarian.org.uk or telephone (01273) 696022.