Reworking of a musical classic by Alfie in honour of his late mum

A talented young musician has created a reworking of a famous piece of classical music in memory of his mother who died of brain cancer.

Alfie Beston, a church organist, saxophonist and aspiring composer from Chelsfield, Orpington, collaborated with more than 40 musicians as part of an ambitious project to reimagine Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

After writing a new arrangement of the piece, the 17-year-old set out to find suitable musicians to play it and embarked on a two-year project to get each of the sections recorded, filmed and arranged into an incredible video he has now released to raise funds for the charity Brain Tumour Research.

Alfie’s support of the charity comes following the death of his mum, Sarah, to a highly aggressive type of brain tumour in July 2021.

Alfie, who got a music scholarship to Sevenoaks School in Kent and directs music at St John the Evangelist Church in Bromley, said: “I sent the parts remotely and most of the musicians sent back audio and video but sometimes I went to them or they came to me. I ended up with more than 150 audio tracks for this.”

He added: “I’m an organist so I wanted to reimagine a piece of organ music, but one with a famous melody people would know, which made Toccata and Fugue in D minor the obvious choice.

“There are different arrangements of the Toccata but I felt I could do something different, that pushed the boundaries of what’s possible, with a multitracked online collaboration.”

The finished product, Toccata, features solos from trumpeter Mike Lovatt, who has led the trumpet sections of the BBC Big Band, saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock, who has performed with artists including Tom Jones, Ray Charles and Robbie Williams, guitarist Gary Ryan, who is assistant head of strings at the Royal College of Music, and jazz soloist Sammy Mayne.

 

TV and film composer Lester Barnes, who has been nominated for Oscar, BAFTA and EMMY awards, also helped Alfie with the audio for Toccata.

Alfie, who plays in a band with Lester and used to play lead sax for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra Academy’s big band, said: “I’m really happy with the final result, but, for me, most of the value lies in the process of making it because of the people I got to meet.”

The skilful teenager’s video of the collaboration has already raised more than £2,100 for Brain Tumour Research since being released on YouTube on February 22.

Sarah, a counsellor and geography teacher who taught at St Olave’s Grammar School in Orpington for 27 years, passed away 27 months after diagnosis, aged 48.

Alfie said: “Losing someone you love to brain cancer is awful and I know the key to improving the outcome for others in the future is research, which is why I support Brain Tumour Research.”

To support Alfie’s fundraising, please visit www.justgiving.com/page/alfie-beston-1708848212731 and to watch his video go to www.alfiebeston.com.

Pictured top: Musician Alfie Beston (left) with TV and film composer Lester Barnes (Picture: Alfie Beston)