Anyone who has enjoyed the Sunday afternoon chamber concerts at St Nicolas Church in Abingdon over the last few years will be pleased to know they are back this autumn — but with some new hands at the helm.

David Pedder, who founded the series in 2001, has decided to retire and handed over the reins to Simon Payne — well known for his involvement with Oxford Philomusica, Oxford Sinfonia and the Pavlova Wind Quintet (pictured above) — and his partner, Jennifer Hay (pictured right).

“The reason we were keen on it is because there’s not a great deal of live music in Abingdon, and lots of people we knew wanted to have the chance to play in concerts, at relatively low cost, that were relatively easy to organize,” Simon tells me. “So we were happy to take it over.

“It is a lovely church, and the right size. There are other lovely churches in Abingdon, but they’re on too large a scale for this sort of project. The churchwardens were very keen to have it used and to keep the series going. Indeed, they’ve even bought a new piano!”

The afternoon time slot is one of the attractions of the series, as Jennifer discovered at this season’s opening concert on July 11. “I was on the door, and a nice old lady comes along and says, ‘I’m so glad you’re carrying these concerts on, because it’s in the afternoon, and I can come to an afternoon concert — I don’t like going out by myself after dark.’ “So from that point of view I think it’s a real service to people, because they can come out, even in the winter, walk down, have a nice concert and go home feeling happy. And I don’t think we think about these people enough.”

Jennifer is one of the founding members of new chamber ensemble Abbey Strings, which makes its debut at St Nicolas Church on September 12 with a programme of Bach, Mozart and Elgar, directed by Mariette Richter.

“We just wanted something to happen in Abingdon for string players, because there are a lot of players who play in Oxford but they’re based in Abingdon,” Jennifer says. “So we thought it would be nice to have a strings-only ensemble. There’s a lot of beautiful music written for strings, and we don’t get a chance to play it, because usually we’re playing in things like the Sinfonia. “We used to do concerts where you had string pieces and wind pieces, but it’s good to have the chance to play with more strings and just concentrate on playing nice string music.

“We might well consider having other instruments in later, but at the moment we want to concentrate on string music, which is usually very popular. Virtually all our players are from Abingdon or within the area, and we’re trying to keep it small — there are only about 15 players at the moment, and this gives us a chance to play real chamber music together. So that’s the idea of it.”

Other concerts coming up include a baroque concert on October 3 with an ensemble that includes former series organizer David Pedder on the guitar, along with sopranos Megan Hooper and Anne Bardsley, Rachel McCubbin (flute), Ian McCubbin (bassoon) and Mike Bardsley (harpsichord).

They are followed on November 7 by flautist Chris Britton, one of Simon’s colleagues in the Pavlova Wind Quintet, along with percussionist Keith Fairbairn. Then on December 12, Simon and Chris will be joined by other Pavlova members Carolyn King (oboe), Barbara Stuart (clarinet) and Jenny Morgan (horn) in their traditional Christmas concert.

The first concert of the New Year is string quartet OXUS, with violinists Kate Bailey and Louise Graham, violist Heather Birt and cellist Spike Wilson. They will be followed in February by young performers from St Helen and St Katharine School, Abingdon, and Simon has further bookings right through to December 2011.

“There’s no shortage of players,” he says. “We’ve got Heather Birt bringing an ensemble along, Carolyn’s going to do an oboe concert and we have a harp player from Reading.

“So if anybody wants to book for 2012, they’re very welcome to apply!” laughs Jennifer.

To inquire about tickets, or if you are interested in performing, you can call Simon on 07775 904626. Details of forthcoming concerts available at www.abbeychamberconcerts.org