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Music Notes

WELCOME TO HAWICK
MUSIC CLUB

 

Hawick Music Club celebrates its 71st season of live concerts in the town. A wide variety of Scottish-based musicians will be performing in the 2022/2023 season. 

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How did Hawick Music Club begin?

Hawick Music Club was founded in 1951 and the Club is thrilled that some founder 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 our 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. The Cornucopia Rooms was chosen and proved very successful with its intimate surroundings and Julie Witford’s goodwill.

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 may be repeated, judging by the positive reaction.  Large round tables encourage a convivial atmosphere and being a large airy space, the function rooms lend themselves to social distancing and a bigger audience.  St Cuthbert’s Church will offer another airy space with good acoustics.

Next Up

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Music Set

UPCOMING
EVENTS

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hawick music club photo.jpg

Pre – Season Concert  in conjunction  with String Theory Festival 

Saturday 6th August 2022 – 

Ross Milligan & Malcolm MacFarlane 

Venue - Hawick Rugby Football Club at 12.30pm Tickets £5 (+ Sandwich lunch by donation) 

Ross & Malcolm have  worked together for 15  years as Jazz guitarists to the Scottish Guitar  Quartet and with the  Royal Scottish National  Orchestra. Together  

they made up the formidable guitar section for the world premiere run of Mark Knopfler’s new musical Local Hero. Two acclaimed Scotsmen to promote an award-starred programme of performers for the Club! 

 

Programme of Concerts 2022 - 2023 

Friday 9th September 2022 – Djordje Gajic & Ryan Corbett Venue - Hawick Rugby Football Club at 7pm (Optional evening meal at 5.30pm) 

Djordje began his musical  studies in Serbia aged six.  He has won International   Accordion Competitions in  Italy, Serbia & France &  CMA World Championships in France. Ryan is a classical  

accordionist in his final year at the Royal Conservatoire of  Scotland, beginning playing aged eleven and taught by  Djordje from fourteen. He, also, has an impressive list of  awards to his name.  This international collaboration offers a real treat to our  Hawick audience. 

 

Sunday 16th October 2022 - Gaia 

Venue - St Cuthbert’s Church at 2.30pm 

Katrina Lee & Alice Allen are an  award-winning violin & cello duo,  who won Chamber Music  Scotland’s two-year residency.  Their exciting, bold, and daring  performances push the boundaries  of string duo performance and creative programming.  Between them they boast an impressive array of  instrumental awards. One of today’s most exciting and dynamic duos of our times. 

 

Thursday 10th November 2022 – Bone-Afide 

Venue - St Mary’s & Old Parish Church Halls, 7pm (Optional evening meal at 5.30pm) 

Performing works from  all genres and periods  with the aim of defying  

stereotypes surrounding  the instrument, this  group of friends, based in  London, strives to  

showcase the versatility of the Trombone, as chamber  musicians. Robert Mosley, Angus Butt, Isobel Butt and  Merin Rhyd also play with international orchestras.  This will be a big and exciting sound to enjoy. 

 

As an experiment, there are no concerts scheduled for the dark  winter months of December, January & February this year.

Sunday 19th March 2023 - Eden Baroque 

Venue – St Cuthbert’s Church 2.30pm 

Katharine May & Michael  Sanderson established Eden  Baroque after moving to Cumbria  in 2017 with the aim of bringing  well-known and less performed  baroque chamber music to as  wide an audience as possible. Katherine, once described by a  

critic of the Times as ‘the evening’s feisty and urbane  harpsichordist’ and Michael, solo singer and folk-fiddle  player offer a varied programme to whet our appetite. 

 

Saturday 15th April 2023 – Clyde Duo 

Venue – St Cuthbert’s Church 7pm 

Formed in 2010, the Clyde  Duo consists of Flautist,  Aisling Agnew and Harpist,  Sharron Griffiths who met  while working together at  St Andrews University  where they both are active  teachers and performer’s, they discovered they share a  compelling interest in the flute and harp repertoire and  since then have performed together across the UK and  internationally. 

Has Hawick Music Club ever hosted a Harp and Flute duo in  the past? 

 

Saturday 20th May 2023 – Resol String Quartet Venue – Teviot Church 7pm 

With a vision to make classical music  more inclusive both in the present  and in the future, this group of  friends formed the Resol String  Quartet in 2018 through their love of  chamber music. Representing the  Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, they  won First Prize and Audience Prize in   the CAVATINA competition at the  Wigmore Hall.  They have toured across the UK and Europe and now perform their debut concert in Hawick!

 

Djordje Gajic and Ryan Corbett 

Gaia 

Clyde Duo 

Resol String Quartet 

appear courtesy of  

Chamber Music Scotland

Annual Membership gives members  very generous discount on entry to all  six concerts in the programme. Adults £60 

Contact Membership Secretary: Mrs Muriel Wilson 

Main Street 

Denholm, Hawick TD9 8NU 

Telephone 01450 870514  

or E-mail:  

mwilson201646@outlook.com 

Non-members are always welcome. Entry to each concert costs £15 and is  free for accompanied people under 18  years. 

Book to attend any concert by  contacting Mrs Muriel Wilson (see  above). Meals prior to a concert must be  prebooked – contact Carol Peat cspeat@live.co.uk or phone 374741. 

Hawick Music Club was formed in 1951  with the aim of promoting  and encouraging music  in all its different forms.  Charitable status  was granted in 1983. 

Hawick Music Club is helped financially  by Chamber Music Scotland  

through funding  

provided by Creative Scotland.

Charity # SC008473

Season flyer

Previous Events

A violin from the WW1 trenches to feature in Hawick Music Club concert 

The forthcoming concert on 20th February of Hawick Music Club will feature violinist Andy Sherwood and pianist Jim Letham. 

Their programme contains a special surprise element. This is an arrangement of the ‘Road to Passchendaele’, (about the brutal WW1 battle in 1917) by local musician Alan Brydon using a violin that has been loaned to Andy and which was actually played in the WW1 trenches.

The duo will also play 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 starts with sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven. Other repertoire includes beautiful lyrical music from Sweden. Andy and Jim have just released a new CD of popular classical repertoire for Violin and Piano a couple of those pieces will be 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 TrinityLaban  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. 

 

Concert Sunday February 20th at 2.30pm , ST Cuthbert’s Church, Slitrig Crescent, Hawick, TD9 0EN.

Tickets available on the door and there will be refreshments. 


The attached picture is of Fritz Kreisler in his uniform from the time he served in the trenches in WW1. 
 

NEWS

Newspapers

 Musicians save the day for Hawick Music Club Concert

19/01/22 

 

Hawick Music Club was notified last week that their planned concert for 16th January could not take place due to the booked singer testing positive for COVID 19. By good luck two wonderful musicians, mezzo-soprano Grace Waine and pianist Michal Gajzler , stepped forward at just three days notice to save the concert. Amazingly with so little time to prepare, they put on a stunningly good performance in Hawick’s beautiful St Cuthbert’s Church. The manner of presentation was lovely. Grace communicated her enthusiasm and enjoyment of the music with her appreciative audience. With a powerful and beautiful
voice, Grace sang her whole programme from memory. Uninhibited by stands and music, Grace sang from a collection of songs and arias with a real sense of drama and style interspersed with short explanations of the meanings of each work. Grace was accompanied by Polish-born Michal Gajzler , a sensitive and accomplished pianist in his own right. He treated us to a solo performance of Winter from The Four Seasons by Vivaldi was specially adapted for piano. The concert was well attended and from comments overheard on leaving, very much enjoyed too.

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