Sprotbrough Music SocietyAbout us
The Society was founded in 1978 on the initiative of Alan Cowell, head of music, and Marjorie Lyth, who taught piano in the music department of Doncaster High Melton College, at that time a teacher training college four miles west of Doncaster. In that year a series of classical music concerts in South Yorkshire churches including a performance by the Lindsay String Quartet at St.Mary’s Church in the neighbouring village of Sprotbrough had shown the potential of this kind of live music in attracting audiences in the area. For these reasons, in the beginning the Society was called the Sprotbrough and Melton Music Society, and the venues for our concerts were either in the Harvey Theatre at High Melton or, occasionally, in St.Mary’s Church, Sprotbrough. 1978 was also the year in which English National Opera North was formed based at Leeds, and our Society for one of its earliest concerts at High Melton was fortunate enough to engage the chorus conducted by John Pryce Jones. This got us off to a truly splendid start, and these links with Opera North have been maintained ever since.
By 1991 the Society had ceased to use the Harvey Theatre as a regular venue for its concerts, preferring to use St.Mary’s Church Hall, Sprotbrough, the village where most of our members lived, or occasionally the Museum & Art Gallery in Doncaster for solo piano recitals. Accordingly, the Society changed its name to Sprotbrough Music Society. In 2002 with the help of a Lottery grant the Society was able to purchase its own Yamaha medium sized grand piano resulting in much greater flexibility in the organising of concerts.
Over the years many talented musicians have performed for the Society, most of whom have developed national and international reputations for themselves. These include string quartets such as the Brodsky, Belcea, Carducci, Solaris, and most recently the young Barbirolli Quartet. Outstanding solo pianists such as Margaret Fingerhut, Evgeny Soifertis, Jonathan Plowright, Sam Haywood, and Neil Crossland have dazzled us with their skill and virtuosity. Piano trios such as that comprising Rivka Galani, violin, Alan Hacker, clarinet, and Benjamin Frith, piano, have demonstrated the superb quality of our artists. Duos have included Piers Adams, recorders, and Howard Beach, harpsichord, leaders in their respective fields, who introduced us to rarely heard combinations of instruments. Artists such as Leland Chen, violinist, Amy Dixon, saxophone, Catherine Beynon, harp, Dominic Seldis, double bass, indicate the variety of instrumentalists engaged by the Society. Ensembles have included such talented performers as the Nemo Brass Quintet, and the Ensemble 360 Wind Quintet. Each season features a concert by a singer, for example, Debra Morley, soprano, or Adrian Ward, tenor. Early Music groups such as Estampie or York Waites have also performed for us.
Sprotbrough Music Society continues to organise an annual programme of professional concerts starting in the autumn and continuing through to the following spring, offering a range of top quality live music. As well as our own members, these concerts are open to the public. In addition, we organise members’ evenings featuring local talented young musicians, and also mount music workshops in local schools. Visits to symphony concerts take place. In these ways we feel that community activities such as ours make an important contribution to the quality of life in the area.