Little Gaddesden Music Club
Little Gaddesden Music Club, one of the oldest in this country, started in 1946 with recitals in private houses and in Ashridge College. Nowadays we usually meet in private houses in or near the village; we also use Little Gaddesden Church which allows for larger ensembles, provides more room for guests and has a good piano. We have also been able to hold concerts in the Village Hall in past years.
Membership is open to all and we operate by an annual subscription for a season, usually of five recitals. The season runs from October to May or early June. We allow members to bring a limited number of guests to attend those concerts where space allows, subject to checking beforehand. Members of the public are welcome to attend concerts in the Church or the Village Hall, where tickets are available at the door.
The concerts are on a Sunday evening, and start promptly at 5:15 pm, finishing around 7 pm after a brief interval. After the concerts we serve a glass of wine or fruit juice and have some nibbles – during this time members enjoy the opportunity to mix with the performers.
The use of private houses as venues means that the performers are usually a soloist or a duo, but we regularly have wind trios and string trios as well. We often have a solo piano recital in the programme, usually from the Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist Award scheme run by Making Music.
Duos can take many forms: the most common is one instrument accompanied by piano, but we also have other pairings such as harp with flute or with voice, violin & guitar, clarinet & violin and guitar duo.
As can be seen from the comments above, we encourage young musicians, typically soon after they have graduated from music college, occasionally while still studying. Their standard is extraordinarily high and some go on to distinguished careers. We have heard many star performers including: the cellist Sandy Baillie; the flamenco guitarist Paco Pena; pianists Viv McLean and Margaret Fingerhut; violinists Paul Barritt and Peter Fisher and the guitarist Craig Ogden. We are fortunate to be able to hear music played by young virtuosi in an intimate setting within a few miles of the village.
Contact
Ian Hamilton
07491 654415
music.club@littlegaddesden.org.uk
Little Gaddesden Music Club
Details of 2022/23 Season
Membership for the year: £55.00 per person. Additional Gift Aided donation welcome but optional.
All concerts start at 5:15pm prompt and finish around 7:00pm.
| Date | Performer/ Instrument | More details |
| 2 October 2022 | Eleanor Corr (violin) and Emil Duncumb (piano) | Eleanor was on Making Music’s Philip & Dorothy Green Young Artists scheme in 2020 when she won the ROSL Annual Music Competition. Works will include Grieg: Sonata no. 2, Mozart: Sonata in D major K306 and The Lark Ascending. eleanorcorr.com |
| 26 March 2023 | Gabriella Jones Solo harp | Gabriella played for us last year, but was only seen by a handful of members; she is back by popular demand. Her programme is “A celebration of works by harpists and composers Marcel Tournier and Henriette Renié, and new thought-provoking transcriptions for the harp by Debussy, Franck and Janáček.” gjonesharp.com |
| 23 April 2023 | Victor Lim Solo piano | Works will include Haydn – Piano Sonata in C major Hob.XVI:50 and Chopin – Piano Sonata No.3 in B minor Victor is kindly supported by Making Music’s Philip & Dorothy Green Young Artists scheme.  victorlimpianist.com |
| 21 May 2022 | Vickers Bovey Guitar Duo Julian Vickers & Daniel Bovey | Works will include In The Mists by Janáček (originally written for piano) and Pieces de Clavecin by Rameau (originally written for harpsichord) vickersbovey.co.uk |
Programmes for individual concerts, where available, will be shown here
Header image credit: Joel Wyncott on Unsplash