Hull Music Club

The first regular series of chamber music concerts in Hull were presented by the Hull Music Club from 1932 to1939 followed by the Hull Sunday Music Society who held concerts throughout the Second World War and a little beyond. The Hull Chamber Music Club held its inaugural General Meeting on 31 May 1948, presented its first full season in 1948/9 and has operated successfully ever since.

One of its principal founders was Robert Marchant, Director of Music at what was then the University College of Hull, and its concerts have always been held at the University, where the Middleton Hall provides a clear but warm acoustic, excellent sightlines, and seating for over 400.

The Society continues to liaise with the University’s Music Department, as well as other partners throughout Hull and beyond. The minutes of early committee meetings stressed the importance attached to the content of the programmes as much as to the artists performing them. Indeed it was decided that the committee ‘should proceed in the order: music first, artists second where possible’, and although this is certainly not always possible, we have always tried to include both familiar and unfamiliar music in our programmes.

We interpret ‘chamber music’ to mean any instrumental or vocal music written to be performed with one player or singer to a part, and this includes music from the middle ages right through to the present day. Concerts have ranged in size from solo piano recitals to a chamber version of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas, and ensembles have ranged from early music and baroque groups through string quartets, piano trios and other standard classical formations, to large wind ensembles and the more unusual instrumental combinations favoured by many contemporary composers. Artists have ranged from international stars to up-and-coming young musicians.