Welcome to Chatteris Music Society

CHATTERIS MUSIC SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
 
January 2025
Another year has begun and we hope you will have enjoyed a Happy Christmas with friends and family. While the festive season is much anticipated and appreciated it is also good to get back into normal routine – whatever that might be after the celebrations.
The beginning of another year with all its promise and expectation is perhaps a good time to inform you of concert arrangements for 2025. We have 3 concerts confirmed so far:

• Saturday 15th March 2025, 14.00 hours at Emmanuel Church, Chatteris PE16 6LA when the Chatteris & Manea Silver Band will be performing.

 

• Saturday 12th July 2025, 19.30 hours at St Andrew’s Church, Sutton in the Isle CB6 6 LA when the trumpeter Crispian Steele-Perkins will be giving an evening concert.

 

• Saturday 13th September 2025, 19.30 at St Peter’s Church, March PE15 9RJ, 19.30 hours when we will be entertained by the Paula Jackman Jazz Band who will give an evening concert.
•  

Another date for your diary is our 2025 AGM. This will be held at the King Edward Centre, Chatteris PE16 6NG om Saturday 22nd February 2025 at 15.30. Doors will open at 15.00  and our Treasurer will be there to collect annual membership fees ahead of the AGM. Non members are welcome to attend and join in the discussions but, under the terms of our constitution, will notbe able to take part in voting.
Patrick Hemmerle, the pianist who gave the last concert of the year, received much appreciation and acclaim and provided perhaps the best concert of 2024. While it would not be normal for CMS to invite a performer back so quickly for another concert, we are aware how much his concert was enjoyed by the audience. It was quite an exceptional performance!
With this in mind you will have noticed that we have not yet finalised a fourth concert for 2025. This normally would take place in the autumn, end of October into November, and given the time of year would be an afternoon performance. There will be an opportunity at the AGM for you, the members, to decide who you would like to perform at this fourth concert in 2025. Come and have your say. We look forward to seeing you. As usual light refreshments will be served after the meeting. 
It only remains for us to take this opportunity to wish you a happy, joyous and, above all, a peaceful New Year. Our world certainly needs it right now!
The CMS Committee.

CHATTERIS MUSIC SOCIETY NEWS LETTER
 September 2024

With the recent passing of the Autumnal Equinox the calender, at least, dictates that we are now officially into Autumn although at present there is little sign of the changing colours in nature associated with Autumn in our gardens or the leaves beginning to fall from the trees. Whatever measure we use to denote the coming of Autumn there is no doubt about the recent change in our weather to wetter and colder conditions often associated with Autumn and that means the season of Christmas is not far away and, as usual, will probably creep up on us all to quickly.
However before that happens we have one more CMS concert arranged. This is scheduled to take place on Saturday  2nd November at St Peters Church, High Street, March PE15 9RJ, commencing at 14.00 hours, when we will be entertained by the international pianist Patrick Hemmerle. He will be playing an extremely varied programme of well known classical music by composers including Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Lizst, Scarlatti, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mahler, Chopin, Greig, Grainger and others. Something for everyone. We hope you will be able to join us for this interesting and exciting looking concert and that you will advertise it to your family, friends and neighbours. Advertising this concert is very important and is a crucial way in which all our members can help in supporting us. Ticket prices will be as normal,  £15 for CMS members and £18 for non-members, available from our Treasurer or on the door.
The other date we have for your diaries is Saturday 22nd February 2025 when we will be holding our Annual General Meeting at the King Edward Centre, Railway Lane, Chatteris PE16 6NG from 15.00 hours. We plan to commence the meeting proper at 15.30 hours and it will be for current members only. Annual membership fees will be collected between 15.00 and 15.30 hours so please come prepared to pay your membership fees before the meeting commences. Our annual membership fees remain at £10 for couples and £7.50 for singles.
All Officers and Committee Members will be up for re-election and we have vacancies on the Committee. If you would like to join the Committee then nominations in writing supported by two members should be with our Secretary, Petra, by no later than Saturday 15th February 2025 please. There will be opportunity at the meeting to discuss this years concerts, finances,  future concerts and membership fees - the latter subject which rarely, if ever, has universal approval! On a brighter, and more encouraging note, we are pleased to report that several of our recent concerts have, at least, ‘broken even’ financially. This means that, with the bequest received earlier this year, we are financially in a stronger position than we were at the end of the last financial year.  However audience numbers remain stubbornly low, at least in comparison to just a few years ago. The important questions will be, which artists do we want to book for concerts during 2025? How much are we prepared to spend on artist’s fees? What is the most effective way to increase both our audience and membership numbers?
Since the last Newsletter we have had two very successful concerts both of which made a small profit. The Wandering Minstrels were very popular and gave an unforgettable  performance. The rejuvenated Huntingdon Mail Voices also gave an excellent, varied and enjoyable performance which attracted the biggest audience we have had in March during 2024. The biggest audience of the whole 2024 season was at the Opera Dudes concert held in Chatteris during March.
We look forward to welcoming you at St Peters Church, March on Saturday 2nd November.
The CMS Committee.

CHATTERIS MUSIC SOCIETY NEWS LETTER
January 2024
We hope that you all had a good Christmas and have now acclimatized back to normal life once again. If it is not too late, we wish to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Our CMS AGM looms on the horizon once again and is due to take place at the King Edward Centre, Railway Lane, Chatteris PE16 6NG on Saturday 17th February 2024, commencing at 15.00 hours. If you have any items for the agenda please let Petra our secretary know by 27th January 2024. She can be contacted by email at peppimacg@live.co.uk.
Annual elections of Officers and Committee Members will take place at the meeting. We are in need of more help on the Committee in running CMS so if you would like to get involved, please get other members to nominate and second the nomination before passing it to our Secretary. Presentation of the accounts for the year 2023 will also take place at this meeting.
Membership fees remain unchanged from last year (£7.50 single and £10 for a couple) and will be collected by our Treasurer at the AGM. Please be prepared to pay this at the door as you arrive. It is hoped to provide some entertainment following the meeting but we have been unable to confirm any bookings for this so far. Following the business meeting refresments will be served to members. We hope as many of you as possible will attend.
Our first concert of the season will be given by the Opera Dudes on Saturday 9th March 2024 at Emmanuel Church, East Park Street, Chatteris PE16 6LA commencing at 14.00 hours. This our first concert to be held in Chatteris for nearly 4 years so please help to make our return a big success by advertising this information with friends, family and neighbours in order that we can achieve a large audience.
Two more concerts have been arranged to be held at St Peter's Church, March PE15 9RJ and both commencing at 19.30 hours. The first will be held on Saturday 18th May 2024 and be given by the Wandering Minstrels, a Gilbert and Sullivan tribute group from Welwyn, Herts. The second concert will be held on Saturday 13th July 2024 and will be a return visit by Huntingdon Mail Voices, formerly known as Huntingdon Male Voice Choir.
Our new website is now up and running and we will be adding to it as time goes by. You can find it at www.chatterismusicsociety.co.uk. Be careful not to go onto older sites which have very similar web identities.
We look forward to seeing you next at our AGM
The CMS Committee.

Chatteris Music Society
 
Chairman's report for 2023
We started the year 2023 against a back-drop of reducing audience numbers and 4 concerts in 2022 which had all made a financial loss. In fact this was in keeping with the longer term trend of the previous few years of operation. Change was clearly needed if CMS was to survive. The Committee identified the areas of reducing audience numbers and effective advertising of our concerts as the two key focus areas which needed to be reversed and altered respectively if CMS was to prosper and become profitable once again.
It was suggested that booking a popular act such as The Pasadena Rooftop Orchestra would draw a bigger audience and thus offset the higher fees involved. Another suggestion was to hold a concert in Chatteris (our home town) to see if that would draw a bigger audience albeit we knew the venue costs would be increased over what we currently paid at March or Sutton. We agreed to develop our website recognising that it could be an important and effective advertising tool.
In the event 2023 was a year of set-backs all of which were beyond our control and which affected all three of the concerts we organised. A fourth concert planned for 2023 was to have been given by the Wandering Minstrals, but they subsequently postponed the date to this year 2024. That concert will now take place on Saturday 18th May at St Peters, March as will the concert by Huntingdon Male Voices on Saturday 13th July. Both concerts will commence at 7.30 pm.
Phillip Dyson had already been booked to give the first concert of 2023 on Saturday 6th May when the Coronation was announced for the same date. We moved our date on a week to Saturday 13th May and subsequently a national rail strike was called at short notice for that week-end. As Phillip doesn't drive we had to transport him from and to his home in Ewell, Surrey! It was a concert given in memory of our former Chairman, Frank Cooper, who much admired Phillip's piano playing skills. It was an emotional and memorable concert in many ways!
Our next concert scheduled for 30th September experimented with the idea that a popular and better known act such as The Pasadena Rooftop Orchestra would attract a bigger audience and thus fund the increased costs of staging such a concert. It was argued that their followers on the Pasadena web-site would be prepared to travel further to attend their concerts. This line of thought turned out to be incorrect with a concert audience of just 76 when, even taking account of the increased ticket prices, we needed an audience of at last 150 to financially break even. However it was a super performance for those who did attend. Once again, through no fault of our own, we had to defer the date of the concert by 2 weeks at short notice. Pasadena had booked themselves simultaneously for our concert as well as a concert in Germany at the same time! This concert accounted for 75% of our financial loss in 2023.
The final concert of the year was given by Chatteris and Manea Silver Band at St Andrews Church, Sutton and was an excellent concert. It was the first concert organised by this Committee that has made a small profit, even though we recorded our lowest audience number - just 28 people. The performer fee for this concert was much lower than we would normally expect to pay at just £250 and your Committee have concluded that this might have to be the way for us to go in future in order to avoid insolvency. In keeping with our other concerts in 2023 this concert was not without unexpected setback. The heating at St Andrews Church failed again at short notice, just as it did shortly before our concert there in 2022.
We still have to trial the idea of holding a concert in Chatteris to see whether that will significantly increase our audience numbers. That concert has now been arranged for Saturday 9th March 2024 at Emmanuel Church, Chatteris and is an afternoon concert commencing at 2.00 pm. It will be given by The Opera Dudes. A number of comments have been received by the Committee suggesting that Chatteris residents would still like to come to our concerts if they were held in Chatteris. So here is their chance. Please, everyone, spread the word to relations, friends, aquaintances and neighbours particularly in Chatteris.
This concert will not be the cheapest to stage for a number of reasons but ticket prices will be held at the normal level of £15 for members and £18 for others. We need a large audience to cover the costs. The hire of Emmanuel Church is expected to be a little less than double what we would normally pay at Sutton or March but it is the cheapest suitable venue in Chatteris and only about half what we would pay were the concert to be held at Chatteris Parish Church.We need every bit of advertising we can get for this concert and there is nothing better than personal recommendation.
That moves me on to advertising which the Committee have considered often and at great length. We will be placing an advert in 'Chatteris Scene' for the concert on 9th March with the Opera Dudes. While this is an expensive way of advertising it is also very effective as the publication is delivered to every household in Chatteris. We also have regular insertions locally on Facebook and other media platforms.
Our new website is now up and running and I would like to record our grateful thanks to Godfrey Smith, our new web-master, who has very largely taught himself over the last year in managing and updating it. The new website address is www.chatterismusicsociety.co.uk. Please don't confuse this with the old website which had a very similar address www.chatterismusicsociety.org.uk. and which can still be found online. We are doing our best to get rid of the old site but I understand that it isn't straightforward. The new site is the main focus of our advertising and if you have any thoughts/suggestions for its development or items for insertion then please speak to Godfrey or any of the Committee. The CMS newsletter will be published on the website with previous editions also available.
This in turn raises (and answers) the old question we have often been asked, namely 'what do I get for my membership fee'? Well clearly not the newsletter anymore since it will be free to view on our website although for the present we still intend to send it electronically to those members for whom we have an email address. This also means the newsletter will in future be produced as needed and not necessarily the statutory 6 editions per year which commitment this Committee inherited.
The Committee re-introduced the annual membership fee in 2023 following the lifting of Covid restrictions. This allows us to update the membership list on an annual basis. In order to ensure members are not out of pocket with these arrangements we have introduced a tiered concert ticket price scheme whereby members pay less for concert tickets than non-members to the extent that members will be better off overall on an annual basis if they attend all concerts staged in the year.
Negotiations concerning transfer of ownership of the Piano continued with the Archdeacon of Huntingdon and Wisbech (Richard Harlow) acting as intermediary because Rev Wendy Thomson continued to refuse any direct contact with the CMS Committee. Richard confirmed that he had met with the Vicar and Church Wardens in January 2023 and they had agreed 'to accept full responsibility for maintenance, funding and condition of the Piano and to keep it as a community assett available to anyone in the community to use'. Richard also said he would get the Vicar/PCC to confirm these conditions in writing.
By September 2023 no such confirmation had been received. Neither had there been any response from the Vicar/PCC to the offers made through CMS to cover the cost of full restoration of the Piano back to the pristine condition in which it came to CMS in 2011, as defined in the report from piano specialists 1066 Pianos dated February 2020. In view of the lack of the promised response (or any response) from the Vicar/PCC the Committee considered the matter again during September 2023 and agreed to complete the Piano transfer anyway.
This decision was based on the assurances we had received via the Archdeacon concerning the Piano's future welfare, upkeep and availability. A transfer completion letter was sent to the Vicar/PCC enclosing all relevant Piano documentation and spare keys with a request for acknowledgement of receipt.  To date none has been received! However we did receive a reply from the Archdeacon thanking us for including him in the correspondence, expressing gratitude to us in bringing the matter to a conclusion and acknowledging how unsatisfactory that conclusion may be for CMS in some respects.
Finally I would like to express my thanks to every member of the Committee for their support and help over the last year and particularly to Petra our Secretary and Stephen our Treasurer. Thank you to everyone.
It is a sad fact that we now have 3 vacancies on the Committee. You may recall that we received Chris Downes resignation just a few hours before our last AGM commenced. More recently several of our Committee members have been out of action with health issues and we desparately need more help on this Committee. Please don't be backward in coming forward if you would like to play a more active role in CMS.
That concludes my report. Thank you for your attention.

Our first concert of the 2023 season finally took place on Saturday 13th May at St Peter's Church, March when we were entertained by the International Concert Pianist, Phillip Dyson. This was Phillip's second visit to CMS and the audience was treated to a wonderful concert of Piano music in many differing styles.
This concert was given in memory of our late Chairman, Frank Cooper, and contained some of Frank's favourite Piano works. During the concert Phillip Dyson also paid his own tribute to Frank.
Our concert programme this year continues to demand change. We learnt from The Pasadena Roof Orchestra at the end of June that they would be on a concert tour of Germany on the 30th September and therefore unable to fulfil our concert also booked for that date. It has therefore been postponed for 2 weeks and will now take place on Saturday 14th October 2023 at St Peter's Church, March PE15 9JR, commencing at 19.30 hours. We look forward to seeing you all then when a complimentary glass of wine will be available during the interval for which we ask you for a voluntary donation towards the cost.
Ticket prices for the concert will be £20 for CMS members (on production of a valid membership card) and £25 for non members. This is in line with our current policy of matching ticket prices to the cost of performers fees in an attempt to break even financially on the cost of each concert. Pasadena is currently our most expensive act to hire. Tickets for this concert can be purchased on the door or in advance by contacting our Treasurer, Stephen, on 01354 69 3160. If you wish to become a member of the Society then Stephen will be happy to handle that as well. Annual membership prices are £7.50 for single members and £10.00 for a couple.
A further concert has been arranged for Saturday 11th November 2023 to be given by the Chatteris and Manea Silver Band. This will be an afternoon concert commencing at 14.00 hours and will take place at St Andrew's Parish Church, Sutton CB6 2RH. Ticket prices for that concert will be £15 for members and £18 for non-members.
We are continuing to book concerts for next year (2024). Although we have several acts in mind none have actually been confirmed yet but we are working on it! If you have any favourites you think might be suitable for a CMS concert then please let any Committee Member know the details and we will try to book them.

The CMS Committee.

Despite the damp and chilly weather of recent days Spring Bulbs appearing in the garden are one of many ways that nature reminds us that better things are not far away. Snowdrops are now giving way to the array of Spring Bulbs that formally herald the approach of Spring and, perhaps, warmer weather!
Our first concert of the season draws nearer. Although somewhat overshadowed by the Coronation we still look forward to welcoming back the  International Concert Pianist, Phillip Dyson, to entertain us on Saturday 13th May 2023 at St Peter's Church, March PE15 9JR. The concert will commence at 19.30 hours. A complimentary glass of wine will be available during the interval.
Phillip last played for us at Chatteris in December 2019. On this occasion he will perform an exciting and varied programme of music including Piano works by Rachmaninov, Billy Mayerl, Chopin, Schubert, Satie, Debussy, Gershwin and more. This is to be a Memorial Concert in memory of our late Chairman, Frank Cooper, who was both totally absorbed and besotted by Phillip's playing.
Tickets for the concert can be purchased on the door or in advance by phoning out Treasurer, Stephen, on 01354 69 3160. They will no longer be available for purchase from any of the retail outlets we have previously used in Chatteris or March. Tickets are priced at £15 for Society Members on production of a membership card and £18 for non-members. If you wish to become a member of the Society, then please contact our Treasurer.
Our AGM took place on 11th February 2023 at the King Edward Centre,  Chatteris when the Committee and Officers were re-elected unopposed. Our Chairman made an appeal for new members to come forward to replace the 3 active Committee members who had left during the previous 12 months.
Our Chairman reported that our first year of operation post Covid restrictions had been challenging with smaller audiences, a change of concert venues and a smaller membership to contend with. Our Treasurer reported a small financial loss for the year overall although there had been 4 very good concerts of  excellent quality and variety during 2022.
The meeting agreed that membership fees should be re-introduced for 2023 at the same rate as previously. £10 for couples and £7.50 for singles. It was further agreed to discount ticket prices for members in order to encourage membership. If you haven't already joined the Society then we would encourage you to do so by contacting our Treasurer.
For more expensive 'acts' such as the Pasadena Roof Orchestra (who will be giving a concert for CMS on 30th September 2023) it was agreed the Committee would be free to increase prices in order to cover expected higher costs and to vary differential of ticket prices (member/non member). We are still investigating the possibility of introducing the incentive for members of offering one free ticket in a draw at each concert.
Concern was expressed about too many 'repeat acts' and not enough 'new acts' (those new to CMS) being booked. The Chairman defended booking repeats (Crispian Steele Perkins and The King's Men) because in 2022 they had drawn significantly larger audiences than the new acts (Opera Dudes and Boglarka Giorgy/Amy Butler) with the corresponding larger financial loss. We are happy to try new ideas but we have to live within budget! There is no alternative. Our efforts must be concentrated on increasing audience size.
We look forward to meeting you all again on Saturday 13th May at St Peter's Church, March.
Have a very Happy Easter.
The CMS Committee.

Saturday 19th November 2022 saw the long-awaited concert by The Opera Dudes and did not disappoint. We had been told to expect the unexpected and so it turned out with a continuous performance of changing musical styles, interspersed with comedy sketch impressions in the styles of several well-known comedians including Morecambe and Wise. In-between whiles there was opportunity for the audience to practice their singing talents!
Essentially, The Opera Dudes (alias Tim Lole and Neil Allen) are classically trained tenors, and we were treated to renditions of some of the famous classical tenor arias of Verdi, Wagner and the like, interspersed with more modern music by 20th century composers including Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Inevitably this included music in a number of very differing styles encompassing jazz, opera, swing, classical and many more all seamlessly moulded together.
A keyboard solo by Tim Lole changed the mood yet again with a reflective piece of music which well demonstrated the very good acoustics of Sutton Parish Church. This was the first concert CMS has organised at this wonderful old Church and we would like to extend our thanks for the warm and very co-operative welcome we received from the Church Wardens and members there. It was a wonderful concert and much enjoyed by all those who attended.
Further concerts already arranged for 2023 will be given by the pianist Phillip Dyson on Saturday 13th May and The Pasadena Rooftop Orchestra on Saturday 30th September. Both concerts will be at St Peter's Church, March PE15 9JR and commence at 19.30 hours. The Phillip Dyson concert was originally booked for 6th May but had to be changed because of the Coronation subsequently booked for that date. This concert will be a memorial concert for our late Chairman, Frank Cooper.
Our Society Annual General Members Meeting for 2023 will take place at the King Edward Centre, Railway Lane, Chatteris PE16 6NG on Saturday 11th February commencing at 15.00 hours when the annual business will take place. All the principal officers are available for re-election. Nominations in writing, proposed and seconded by other members, should be with our Secretary Petra PEPPIMACG@LIVE.CO.UK by Saturday 28th January 2023 please. Nominations will not be accepted at the meeting. We are hoping to arrange a short concert by the Fenland Youth Orchestra after the business meeting.
Since the current Committee was formed, we have lost a number of our  members with the result that we are currently over 25% of working members less than when we started in April 2019. If you can help us and would like to join the Committee then please let our secretary know on the contact details as above, please.
You may remember that Society membership fees were suspended in early 2020, due to the onset of Covid with just one concert in that year. Having had a full programme of concerts last year (2022), which we felt would compensate for the concerts we had to cancel in 2020, we are proposing to reinstate fees for this year (2023). Therefore, please accept this notice that fees will be collected at the AGM. £10.00 for a couple and £7.50 single.
May we take this opportunity to wish you a happy and peaceful 2023.
The CMS Committee.