The CHAMBER MUSICIANS of CAMBRIDGE	Updated 6 June 2007
Please click here for Website Index	Having given their first performances in Germany, in April 2003, the Chamber Musicians have been relative newcomers to the Cambridge musical scene. Although a high proportion of our players have been members of Cambridge University, and we have been fortunate in having some of the University’s most talented performers play for us, we are an independent group and have always welcomed talent from wherever it was to be found. Since 2004, a number of our players have been from outside Cambridge, and these have included some very gifted students, former students, and indeed some future students, of the Royal Academy, the Royal College and the Guildhall School of Music. However the Chamber Musicians have never been exclusively, or even primarily, a student group, and have always aimed to be of a professional standard. The group, as it was at our last concert, on 25 February 2007, had evolved over the course of the four and a half years of its existence, from a project initiated by some members of Anglia Polytechnic University (as it then was).
	History of The Chamber Musicians
	2002/03 The Chamber Musicians of Cambridge (The Chamber Musicians for short) came into being as an informal group in 2002, for the purpose of a concert and study tour to Germany. The overall aim of this project was to study the music of Richard Strauss in its topographical, historical and cultural context, on an interdisciplinary basis, and it involved participants from both Cambridge University and Anglia Polytechnic University, including both students and teaching staff. The activities involved in this project included a series of seven open lectures (organised by the Chamber Musicians) and a Strauss song recital (given as part of the Anglia Friday Lunchtime Concerts series, organised by Anglia Music Department). All these events were held at APU in the months prior to the tour and were of particular relevance to the project, but were also open to the general public. Contributors to the lecture series were lecturers from Cambridge University and APU, and a former Head of the APU Music Department, all of whom gave their services without fee. Activities during the tour included visits to Heidelberg, Freiburg, Munich, Landshut, Kloster Benediktbeuern, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Murnau and Kochel-am-See. They also included giving chamber concerts in Kloster Benediktbeuern and at the Richard-Strauss-Institut in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a visit to the Strauss Villa, and a talk from a member of the research team at the RSI, as well as a meeting with staff and students of the Fachhochschule Landshut.
	2003/04 The German tour of April 2003 was felt to be highly valuable and rewarding by all who participated, but the good attendance at our concerts in Germany (admission was free), and the enthusiasm with which they were received, compared with the disappointingly limited support we had received for the study tour, encouraged us to focus our activities exclusively on concert giving. A group of ten players was assembled, including piano, string quartet and wind quintet, and this group included a number of mature musicians as well as a number of university students (Cambridge and Durham). Four completely distinct concert programmes were prepared and all four of these were given at venues in Cambridge, Fulbourn and Lincoln. Two of these programmes were also performed in Germany: in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and at the world famous Geigenbauschule (violin building school) in Mittenwald, where a large part of our audience were students of the Geigenbauschule.
	2004/05 We were encouraged by the enthusiastic response of audiences to our concerts, but less so by the meagre size of our audiences. However, after the concerts of 2004, we decided to concentrate on building a relationship with our Cambridge audience, while not excluding concert giving in a wider area if opportunities presented themselves. We had discussed, but eventually decided to abandon, a plan for a further European tour in 2005, and we made no further plans for any concert tours in the forseeable future. There was some feeling in the group that we would like to give concerts primarily, though not exclusively, for the benefit of our own community, families and friends – of whose views this may have been a reflection. We initially planned to give three chamber concerts in Cambridge during 2005, and we were invited to contribute to the annual ‘Gala Concert’ organised by the Oxford and Cambridge Musical Club, in London. However, in the event, all our players proved to have so many other commitments that during 2005 we gave just one concert in Cambridge, in May, and contributed to the concert in London. The Chamber Musicians’ contribution at the OCMC concert was very well received and we were invited to take part again in 2006.
	2005/06 We had a full programme of concerts in 2005/06 and the year also saw a marked growth in the size of our audiences. The Chamber Musicians were beginning to become known, and to be recognized as an emerging force in Cambridge Music. There was a chamber concert in the Autumn of 2005, to mark the Shostakovich centenary, another OCMC gala concert (our contribution once again very well received), and a further Cambridge concert in March 2006. In April 2006 we celebrated the Mozart 250^th anniversary by expanding the group to form a chamber orchestra, for a special concert at West Road. The programme included major works by Mozart and some short musical tributes to Mozart, composed over the centuries, including a specially commissioned short work. This concert was supported by grants from Awards for All, Cambridge City Council, Cambridge University Press and Anglia Ruskin University. In June the Chamber Musicians contributed a concert to the Peterhouse Camerata Musica series.
	2006/07 Another full programme of concerts was planned for 2006/07, and we gave three chamber concerts in the Autumn/Winter of 2006. Another special concert at West Road was given on 25 February 2007. This concert had something of the character of a gala event, with four different groups of players contributing, and the standard of the performances was very high, attracting much favourable comment from members of the audience. The programme included a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 in A, K488 performed as a chamber work with Nicholas Toller as the soloist, and an ensemble of twelve players. It was planned that this would be the inaugural concert in a series of West Road concerts (one a year for five years) in each of which one of Mozart’s piano concertos would be performed in a similar manner. The February concert also included a performance of Mendelssohn’s Octet which, everyone seemed to agree, was outstanding. We had once again been invited to take part in the OCMC Gala Concert, but as the date of this event was 24 February (the evening before our West Road concert), we asked a group of our London based players to represent us. By all accounts they gave a stunning performance of Zelenka’s Sonata No.5 for two oboes, bassoon and continuo. The audience were completely bowled over by this. In March the Chamber Musicians took part in the CUMS ‘Stanford Celebration’ in Trinity College Chapel, contributing a chamber work to a programme of mainly choral works and organ music. This concert was part of a weekend of events organised to mark the inauguration of a new Stanford Society. Another West Road concert was to have taken place on 16 May, and would have included music for both piano trio and flute and harp duo. We were also planning a series of six concerts in July and August (one of these programmes to be first performed in Hitchin at the end of June). The series was to be part of a new Cambridge Arts Festival, to run for the first time in 2006/07. We were also planning a full programme for 2007/08 and had fixed a second concert in the Mozart Piano Concerto series, in which Piano Concerto No.27 in B flat would be performed as a chamber work, at West Road on 16 March 2008, with Nicholas Toller as the soloist. Other chamber concerts were also being planned, including music by Schubert, Brahms and Mahler. However, following the tragic death, on 23 April, of Nicholas Toller, our Chairman and Artistic Director, and our pianist, we have cancelled all of these concerts. No further concerts are now being planned.
	The nature of the group Nicholas Toller, was a founder member of the group and played with The Chamber Musicians on two successful German tours in 2003 and 2004 as well as in virtually all of our concerts nearer to home from 2004 to 2007. Our concerts have usually been built around one or more pieces with piano, although they invariably also include pieces for other ensembles. In this we have departed from the more common pattern where an established string quartet or wind ensemble will invite a pianist to make a guest appearance with them. With the Chamber Musicians, the piano has always been an essential part of the ensemble. As is described above, the group started in 2003 as a piano quartet and in 2004 was expanded to include piano, string quartet and wind quintet. Although this larger group had its advantages in terms of widening the possible repertoire, ten players are really too many to programme for, on a regular basis, particularly in a group with the piano. In 2005 we therefore reverted to piano and strings (piano quartet and piano quintet) and our intention was that this would remain the core group of The Chamber Musicians. However we hoped to build a looser relationship with a wider group of players who would be willing to play for us on occasion, for particular concerts where other instruments were needed.
	Charitable Status The Chamber Musicians became a formally constituted Unincorporated Charitable Association in July 2005 and a Registered Charity in November 2005. This made the group a membership organisation, and our members in any given year have been all those who have contributed to the work of the organisation in that year (1 September – 31 August). Because our members have voting rights, we could not treat them as life members (if we did, we would never manage to assemble a quorum). However we have always liked to keep in touch with former members, a number of whom have returned to play for us again after an interval.
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