Musical maestros in Egham

Round & About

Egham and District Music Cub celebrated 75 years of sharing the joy of classical music & more with audiences last year. Chairman Himadri Chatterjee looks ahead to their 76th year

We celebrated the 75th year of the Egham and District Music Club with a celebratory lunch and a concert befitting the occasion. 

Accomplished singer and pianist Sam Jewison sang from the piano with hits from Broadway and Hollywood musicals, and ended with a scintillating performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, arranged for solo piano by himself. It was the kind of concert anyone would have been happy travelling into central London to see, and here it was, in Egham, right on our doorsteps. 

Our repertoire is mainly classical, though we do venture, at least once every season, into jazz, or into lighter music. The purpose of this club is to bring performers of a high quality to Egham, and to provide within our community live music-making. For there is always a special frisson associated with live music-making: the excitement of seeing artists perform in front of you, in real time, is something AI will never be able to replicate. 

We have nine concerts per year, one of them being a concert featuring talented young musicians in the locality. The other eight concerts feature professional musicians, many already renowned in musical circles. We have also featured many young musicians near the start of their careers, who have later gone on to become stars. 

We try to cover a wide range: solo pianists; violinists and cellists and clarinettists; chamber ensembles; big bands and jazz orchestras; harpists and guitarists; singers performing all kinds of music from Broadway hits to opera arias; and so on. The level and variety of talent out there is quite extraordinary. 

We are a non-profit-making organisation, run purely on a voluntary basis; and we are open to all. Becoming a member saves money over the year if one is planning to attend a majority of the concerts, but there’s no obligation to join. Whether as member or as visitor, everyone is always most cordially welcome. Please see our website edmc.org.uk for details.  

We are back on January 18th when we’ll be hosting the Kucharsky String Quartet, who will be playing music by Mozart and Ravel. Our February concert (15th) will feature music for cello and piano; and the last concert of this season, in March, will feature music for the harp on the 22nd. Please see our website for the list of concerts. 

We’ve started now on the next 75 years, and we’d be delighted if you could join us, and help make the next 75 as fun and as enjoyable as the first 75 have been!