Enjoy “beautiful and uplifting” live music at open air concert organised by New Barnet opera singer

A programme of summer concerts beside Jack’s Lake at Monken Hadley Common concludes on Sunday 4 August with a performance that includes romantic music from around the world.

Arranging an open-air musical evening in a woodland glade beside the lake was an idea that emerged during the restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic – and it has proved so popular plans are already being prepared for another series of concerts in 2025.

New Barnet opera singer Ilona Domnich organised the first concert in the summer of 2021 and in the following three years she has attracted internationally acclaimed musicians and singers to join her now well-attended Music by Jack’s Lake events.

Ilona is delighted by the success of her achievement and her deeply held wish to help celebrate the popularity and appeal of Monken Hadley Common and to contribute towards the preservation and maintenance of its varied woodland and country walks.

Her final concert of 2024 – see details below – has the title “The Hope” and will feature performances by Zivorad Nikolic (accordion), Charles Mutter (violin/piano) and Ilona Domnich (singer) with a programme of Klezmer and Cabaret music and arrangements of romantic music from around the world.

The concerts are presented by the Monken Hadley Common Trust, a recently established charity which now owns the common and which is run entirely by volunteers and is wholly dependent on donations and subscriptions.

Trustee John Hall says the concerts are helping to raise public awareness about the task of caring for a “wonderful amenity”.

“The message is beginning to get through that the common is owned by the community for the community and that the best way to help is for the community to support us financially by joining the trust or by donations and sponsorship.

“That is how we can preserve and improve this all important green and wooded perimeter to Barnet.”

Ilona says she has been touched again by the warm and generous feedback from audiences for the first two concerts of the summer.

“This is an extraordinary experience, with beautiful, relaxing and uplifting live music, with the backdrop of the lake being a perfect environment with the sky above, the sun setting and the trees around creating a natural amphitheatre.

“People bring folding chairs, picnics and sometimes brave a few drops of rain or slightly cooler conditions but we always see lots of smiling families.

“To me this is all about the living, breathing organism of the community and I am so thrilled to be facilitating these concerts which to me are a miracle, something positive that came out of the pandemic.”

The concerts are free. Cash and card donations go towards the Monken Hadley Common Trust and to fund a music bursary to help a singing student have lessons and workshops at the World Heart Beat Music Academy – a bursary in the name of Marcia Elton who helped Ilona when she moved to London to study at the Royal College of Music.

John Hall said the Monken Hadley Trust was extremely grateful to the benefactors, sponsors and a growing number of friends whose generosity had made the concerts a reality.

“They have helped to place the Music by Jack’s Lake festival on a sound footing for future years and, indeed, we are already beginning to plan the concerts for 2025.”

     HaHadl