St Martin-in-the-Fields' Chris Denton on how to 'wake a sleeping giant'

So…you’ve held senior positions at Southbank Centre, the Barbican and with the Philharmonia Orchestra. You have a track record of working as a consultant with other high-end arts organisations at home and abroad. And then you opt in 2021 to assume the role of CEO at a central London church?

Well, hardly any London church. Rather, the one made world-famous via the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Even so, Chris Denton has clearly taken on a musical challenge as part of his overall brief — to affect a dramatic revolution in the church’s concert life, working alongside artistic adviser, Paul Keene. ‘I’ve always relished a challenge and an opportunity,’ he explains. ‘Both were available at St Martin’s. The addressing of social justice issues is well-established at the church, but on the artistic side we needed to re-shape things and wake a sleeping giant.’

Before the Covid crisis, says Denton, the St Martin’s artistic business model was essentially built around the kind of music that would draw in tourists. With Covid, that side of things ‘just fell off a cliff ‘, as he puts it, and is unlikely to return to significant levels for a while yet. The key task, he says, is to build new audiences. ‘Yes, there’s still a place for the “Vivaldi by Candlelight” type of thing, but not three or four times a week. Look at the assets we have to attract all kinds of performance. A great setting in the heart of London, with excellent transport connections. A marvelous acoustic, for far more than just baroque music. Quality backstage facilities, including rehearsal space. And of course, the crypt is there for performance as well. OK, it’s a church but it doesn’t have to be churchy. So we can embrace everything from jazz to plainchant. We need to shake up perceptions of what can and cannot be performed here.’ And Denton hopes to build an audience for one-hour evening performances. ‘Why not? Perhaps it will encourage people to build an evening in London around the concert.’

As summer shades into autumn, the popular classical offer at St Martin’s increasingly rubs shoulders with all manner of more fibrous fare — from a range of choral concerts featuring the likes of Tenebrae, the Gesualdo Six and The Sixteen to a range of smaller-scale recitals with equally glittering performers. New music is an important part of the mix, as is the young performer element. Helpings of world music are there — a fascinating presentation of Indian ragas alongside Beethoven sonatas played by Shani Diluka catches the eye, for one thing. There’s an extensive series of lunchtime concerts and any number of gigs in the crypt — from R&B, alt-folk and jazz to comedy. Not forgetting the capitalising on Christmas, celebrated with a judicious mix of music for all the family alongside Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (with John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi forces) and more.

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Monteverdi Choir at St Martin-in-the-Fields ©Paul Marc Mitchell

So how is all this being paid for, not least when the overall objective is to feed profit into the church’s mainstream activities, especially its work with the homeless? ’In the same way as we’re looking to offer opportunities to young musicians,’ Denton observes, ‘we want to offer new chances for the homeless.’ Denton is, after all, CEO of the church, not simply the musical activities. OK, there’s an element of blind faith here, he confesses. ‘There’s no magic money-tree, as the saying goes. It’s a case of forming creative partnerships with performers and performing outfits, involving a sharing of financial risk. For one thing, there’s the terrific relationship we have with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra…and collaborations such as the one with the Harrison Parrott artist management office over their HP Futures series.

‘The church can’t sponsor performances, although some element of subsidy is available from our café and retail income for certain “statement” concerts. However, my background is in marketing and audience development. Working at Southbank Centre taught me to be bold in trying new things. That may not always work, but you’ll learn something from the exercise. So far, nothing we’ve done hasn’t worked — thankfully! 82% of our customer base for concerts in the past year has been brand new to St Martin’s. That’s over 21,000 people who’ve discovered us for the first time.’

The St Martin-in-the-Fields Autumn/Winter season 2022-23 starts next week, running from 6 September 2022 to 28 January 2023. Tickets for the season can be found here.