Friends of Classical Music at The Sands

Latest News (June 2008).

The ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING will be held on the night of the first concert, 11 October at 6.00 pm, before the pre-concert talk. The committee has decided that there will be a subscription "holiday" for the next season, when membership will be free. It has also been decided to have floral decorations at the opening concert, which will be paid for by the Friends. A review of the benefits of the Friends has been made and details of this will be mailed to members and subscribers shortly.
Future of the International Concert Series. We are aware that Carlisle City Council will be losing regular grant funding from the Arts Council, and this may have an impact in the 2009-2010 season on the number of concerts that will be promoted that season. Our chair Steve Matthews, vice chair Malcolm Jackson, and secretary Ian Watson have requested a meeting with officers of the council to clarify matters. We will report back at the AGM.
Programme for the 2008-2009 season. Dates for the concert next season are now known, and also the details of the programmes. There is very little repetition of music heard in recent years. As usual there is Dvorak, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. But there is also Haydn's Mercury symphony, and two works by Shostakovich. While we have quite a lot of Russian music, we only have one piece of British music included in the programme, the Elgar Introduction & Allegro for Strings. The details appear at the bottom of the page. Ticket prices have been increased slightly.
Pre-concert talks. It is the intention again to have talks at 6.30 pm on the night of the concert. Details for next season have not yet been fixed. These talks are now very popular, and you are advised to get your free tickets in good time.
Survey. Along with the programme booklets, at the request of the Friends, the Sands Centre sent out a survey form. The results of these have now been analysed, and the results were presented to the committee at its last meeting in February. Of particular interest to Friends were the responses on "What type of Music Would You Like to Hear?". People could choose two out of five categories. The results (as percentages) were:

British	Baroque	Classical	Romantic	Modern
24	9	29	28	10

Strategy for Classical Music in Carlisle & North Cumbria. There is now a "Music in North Cumbria" web site that gives details of all concerts and recitals in the area.