Bringing Live Music to Teviotdale
WELCOME TO HAWICK
MUSIC CLUB
Hawick Music Club celebrates its 72nd season
of live concerts in the town.
A wide variety of Scottish-based musicians will be performing in the 2023/2024 season.
Friday 15th September 2023:
New Focus – Classical Jazz - Instrumental Duo.
Venue - St Mary's & Old Parish Church Halls Time - 7pm
Sunday 15th October 2023:
The Allsorts – Vocals
Venue - St Mary's & Old Parish Church Halls Time - 2.30pm
Sunday 19th November 2023:
Rash & Kang – Clarinet and Piano Instrumental Duo.
Venue - Hawick Rugby Football Club Time - 2.30pm
Thursday 25th January 2024:
Scottish Fiddle Concept - Instrumental Duo.
Venue - Hawick Rugby Football Club Time - 7pm
(optional Burns Supper at 5.45pm - must be pre-booked)
Sunday 25th February 2024:
Chamberlain & Haywood – Instrumental Duo.
Venue - Hawick Rugby Football Club Time - 2.30pm
Saturday 9th March 2024:
The Kleio String Quartet – Instrumental Group
Venue - St Mary's & Old Parish Church Halls Time - 7pm
Saturday 27th April 2024:
Abbey Consort – Choir
Venue - Teviot Church Time - 7pm
The Club is grateful to Muirhall Energy
for their Sponsorship this season.
Please note that this website is updated only once a year in September.
For the latest news, visit us on Facebook.
Annual Membership
Annual Membership gives members very generous discount on entry to all concerts on the programme - just £60 for adults.
Ticket Prices
Non- members are always welcome and entry costs £15 (which may be paid at the door)
Accompanied people under the age of 18 are admitted free.
How did Hawick Music Club begin?
Hawick Music Club was founded in 1951 and the Club is thrilled
that some early members are still active supporters!
The aim of the Club was to “promote and encourage the study, practice and knowledge of music and the arts in Hawick and surrounding districts”. The Club presented concerts by professional musicians but also in the early years, in two concerts per season, gave a platform to local musicians.
Hawick Music Club adopted the marketing tag
‘Bringing live music to the heart of Hawick’ to reflect its aim.
The club is an Unincorporated Charity {SC008473} registered with
and regulated by OSCR-Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator.
Following the opening of the Heart of Hawick complex, the club moved in 2008 from Drumlanrig School Hall to the Tower Mill Theatre where audiences enjoyed the enhanced environment, with comfortable seating offering excellent sightlines, with stage lighting. The Club became an integral part in Heart of Hawick’s activities; with concert tickets sold through their box office.
In 2019 it became more difficult to obtain dates from the Heart of Hawick
early enough to secure the booking of visiting musicians
and this inevitably led to seeking out new venues.
Covid hit in March 2020 and following a cancelled season the Club ventured into uncharted waters offering members two online concerts - featuring the Broen Ensemble and Kowalski Reyes Duo. In 2021 with the re-opening of society, two new large airy venues were chosen - the Hawick Rugby Football Club function room at Mansfield Park and St Cuthbert’s Church. For the first concert in 2021, the Club reinvented itself again offering the Rugby Club’s bar and refreshments to attendees before and after the concert and the option of a pre-booked evening meal afterward. An experiment that has been repeated, with a positive reaction from members. Large round tables encourage a convivial atmosphere and being a large airy space, the function rooms lent themselves
to social distancing and a bigger audience.
St Cuthbert’s Church offered another airy space with good acoustics.
In 2023/24, the Club will use Hawick Rugby Football Club function room at Mansfield Park, St Mary’s & Old Parish Church Halls and Teviot Church as venues according to the suitability of acoustics for the various performers.
Previous Events
A violin from the WW1 trenches to feature in Hawick Music Club concert
The concert on 20th February 2022 featured
violinist Andy Sherwood and pianist Jim Letham.
Their programme contained a special surprise element - an arrangement of the ‘Road to Passchendaele’, (about the brutal WW1 battle in 1917) by local musician Alan Brydon using a violin that had been loaned to Andy and which was actually played in the WW1 trenches.
The duo also played 3 Old Viennese Dances written before the first world war by Fritz Kreisler who himself served in the Austrian trenches and wrote of his experiences in a book called ‘Four Weeks in the Trenches’
The concert started with sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven. Other items included beautiful lyrical music from Sweden. Andy and Jim have released a new CD of popular classical repertoire for Violin and Piano a couple of those pieces were played at this concert.
Andy Sherwood lives near Hawick. He has and still does, perform in many parts of the world as a conductor and violinist. He has been Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London for about 30 years. Jim is an extraordinary pianist, choir director and composer who lives in the Borders and probably needs no introduction to music lovers in the region. He was for many years head of music at Hawick High School. These two musicians who go by the title ‘Agapanthus Duo’ really do bring their enjoyment of playing together to their audiences. Their manner of presentation is fun, informative and informal.
The attached picture is of Fritz Kreisler in his uniform from the time he served in the trenches in WW1.
