About this Event
On 14th November 2026, within the warm, intimate interior of Kensington United Reformed Church, Red Events brings Pergolesi's masterpiece back to London for one luminous evening — Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, performed by the acclaimed Brandenburg Baroque Soloists, featuring soprano Abigail Barker and countertenor Gleb Zakharov as soloists.
The whole concert unfolds by candlelight — the warm, flickering glow of countless candles fills Kensington United Reformed Church with an intimate, immersive atmosphere.
Written in the final weeks of Pergolesi's life and premiered after his death, Stabat Mater has long been regarded as one of the most beautiful works of the Baroque era — a piece whose emotional radiance transcends time, faith, and genre.
A hymn of sorrow and celestial beauty, it has inspired composers from Bach to Vivaldi, and performers from Montserrat Caballé and Barbara Hendricks to other legendary interpreters as Cecilia Bartoli, Renée Fleming, Philippe Jaroussky, Nathalie Stutzmann, and Andreas Scholl — artists whose performances over the past century have elevated Pergolesi's masterpiece to the highest international acclaim.
Now, in the heart of Kensington, this profound meditation on compassion and human fragility receives a new, intimate staging — conceived specifically for the intimate acoustics of Kensington United Reformed Church. A subtle, carefully crafted lighting design will shape the space throughout the performance, offering a contemporary visual reading that enhances rather than distracts, illuminating the emotional and architectural depth of Pergolesi's masterpiece.
This one-night-only London performance offers a rare opportunity to experience three sections of Pergolesi's masterpiece exactly as it would have sounded in his own time — performed in the authentic Neapolitan church pitch used in 18th-century Naples, in lower, warmer tuning which lends the music a darker, more velvety colour.
The performance is given on period instruments by the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists — a string quintet with chamber organ, tuned to the warm historical pitch of A=415 — under the musical supervision of Bob Porter, Artistic Director of the Brandenburg ensembles, with soprano Abigail Barker and countertenor Gleb Zakharov.
The concert is organised by Red Events & Distribution Ltd. — the creative agency which makes exceptional cultural events in ancient mansions, on rooftops, in greenhouses and in other most atmospheric venues of Europe, the United Kingdom, Georgia, Armenia and other countries.
The musicians
Bob Porter (artistic director)
Bob Porter is Artistic Director of the Brandenburgs — bassoonist, conductor, teacher and concert promoter. He founded the Brandenburg Sinfonia in the early 1980s, the first of a family of orchestras under his artistic direction that now also includes the Brandenburg Brass and the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists, and he created the Brandenburg Choral Festival — today the largest annual choral festival in the United Kingdom, with more than seventy choirs performing each year in some of London’s most beautiful churches.
Accepted at fourteen as a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Academy of Music and a veteran of the National Youth Orchestra, Bob studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he has been Head of Wind and Percussion of the Junior Department since 1985 and of which he is a Fellow. As a performer he plays regularly with the London Mozart Players and has worked with every major professional orchestra in London. In 1991 he was made a Freeman of the City of London for services to music — an honour which, as he likes to point out, entitles him to drive a flock of sheep over London Bridge.
In his spare time he is passionate about cricket (playing), rugby (watching), red wine (drinking) and jazz (listening) — although not necessarily in that order.
Abigail Barker (soprano)
Abigail Barker, a 24-year-old soprano from Nottingham, recently graduated with first-class honours in Vocal Studies (BMus) from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.She is currently continuing her vocal studies with Marcus van den Akker and Raymond Connell while pursuing her Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music.
Abigail has performed widely across the UK and Europe. Recent highlights include touring Pergolesi's Stabat Mater across various prestigious venues, including Southwark Cathedral and Queens Hall Edinburgh. She has also sung for Lord of the Rings in Concert at St George’s Hall, Liverpool, and toured Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands alongside Gleb, exploring connection in recital between the Soprano and Countertenor voices. She spent the summer with Opera de Bauge, appearing in the choruses of 'Don Giovanni' and 'Der Rosenkavalier', and singing Minerva in 'Orpheus in the Underworld'. At Trinity Laban, she performed as Prima Nereidi in Monteverdi's 'Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria'.
As a frequent competitor, Abigail was a semi-finalist in the Leach Vocal Competition and took part in the Eastbourne International Singing Competition. She won the Trinity Laban English Song prize, was a finalist in the Lilian Ash French Song and Elisabeth Schumann Lieder Competitions, won the Nottingham-based Liz Chant Bursary, and was selected for the Kathleen Ferrier Bursary Competition.
Abigail has sung with the Old Royal Naval College Chapel Choir under Ralph Allwood, appearing on BBC songs of Praise and also the Rodolfus Choir, where she had the chance to perform Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall. She has also honed her craft in masterclasses with Ailish Tynan, Pascal Rogé, Janis Kelly, Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Lynne Dawson.
Gleb Zakharov (countertenor)
Gleb Zakharov is a London-based countertenor currently continuing his artistic development at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he works with Marcus van den Akker and Raymond Connell, alongside his long-standing mentor Patricia Rozario, OBE.
Gleb has further refined his artistry through studies with Professor Faltin at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin and through masterclasses with Sonia Prina, Carmen Santoro, Ailish Tynan, Ashley Stafford, and other leading artists and coaches.
His operatic roles include Pisandro in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, which he performed in Trieste in the summer of 2026. He regularly appears in concerts and productions across Europe and recently performed a series of Stabat Mater concerts in five different countries.
Gleb performs a wide range of repertoire spanning Baroque, Romantic, and contemporary music. His concert appearances have taken him throughout the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy.
With his warm, dark timbre and instinctive sensitivity to sacred repertoire, Gleb brings profound emotional depth to every performance, staying true to each composer’s original intention.
Beyond the stage, Gleb maintains a strong digital presence with over 50k followers on Instagram, where he collaborates with major cultural institutions and brands, including Decca Classics and Medici TV, creating engaging educational content that introduces classical music and opera to new audiences.
Brandenburg Baroque Soloists
The Brandenburg Baroque Soloists are a group of exceptional instrumentalists performing on period instruments — the period-instrument partner orchestra of London’s Brandenburg Sinfonia. Born in 2004 out of a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, the ensemble unites Sinfonia players who perform on both modern and original instruments with some of the finest period-instrument specialists in Britain, drawn from the same pool as the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Gabrieli Consort.
Specialising in the Baroque choral repertoire and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, the Soloists have created a unique soundscape that brings the great works of the Baroque vividly to life, with a regular concerto series at St Martin-in-the-Fields in the heart of London.
Dynamic, agile and stylish — audiences never leave without a smile on their faces.
Programme
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi — Stabat Mater (Complete performance, approx. 40 minutes)
Additional baroque selections by Brandenburg Baroque Soloists will complete the evening.
Event venue & nearby stays
Kensington United Reformed Church, Allen Street, London, United Kingdom
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