Music Club

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

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Little Gaddesden Music Club

Details of 2023/24 Season

Membership for the year: £60.00 per person. Additional Gift Aided donation welcome but optional.

Concerts start at 5:15pm prompt and finish around 7:00pm, unless otherwise indicated below.

Date	Performer/ Instrument	More details
8 Oct 23	Jack Hancher (solo guitar)	Jack won the prestigious Gold Medal of the Royal Overseas League Competition (“ROSL”) in 2022, becoming just the third guitarist to win the award.
26 Nov 23	Gerard Flotats (cello and piano)	Gerard won the Strings Final of the 2023 ROSL Annual Music Competition. Gerard is kindly supported by Making Music’s Philip & Dorothy Green Young Artists scheme.
24 Mar 24	Levanto Ensemble (flute, clarinet & bassoon)	The trio were finalists in the Mixed Ensembles  Section Final of both the 2023 (link below) and 2021 ROSL Annual Music Competitions
14 Apr 24	Flutes & Frets: Flute (classical and historic) & lute, theorbo and guitars	The duo was a finalist in the Mixed Ensembles  Section Final of the 2022 ROSL Annual Music Competition, and is kindly supported by Making Music’s Philip & Dorothy Green Young Artists scheme.
19 May 24	Craig Ogden, Guitar	A household name to listeners of Classic FM and BBC Radio 3, both critically and popularly acclaimed with a string of No.1 recordings to his name, Australian born Craig Ogden is one of the most successful classical guitarists of his generation. Open to the public. 6pm Little Gaddesden Church, HP4 1NZ Tickets £20 in advance from ianh72542@gmail.com or (if available) £25 on the door.

Programmes for individual concerts, where available, will be shown here

Craig Ogden, 19 May 2024:

His programme reflects the wonderful variety within the guitar repertoire and includes music by: Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos, Vivaldi (arr. John Williams), JS Bach, Django Rheinhardt (arr. Roland Dyens) and Scarlatti.