Aldeburgh Music Club archive

Club members, including Britten, rehearsing at Crag House, 1955

The Aldeburgh Music Club was formed in 1952 by Britten and Pears for local musicians, amateur and professional, to meet together to make music. At the outset club members practised amongst themselves in three groups consisting of recorders, singers and strings, and then met up to play at Club nights about once a month. Club nights were first held at Britten’s and Pears’s home, Crag House, and were for members only, the audience being provided by the non-occupied musicians.

Imogen Holst joined the Music Club shortly after its formation and she remained a member until her death, first acting as conductor and then as vice-president. Britten and Pears took an active part in the Club in the early years and then, when pressure of work prevented this, they provided their support in the roles of vice-president and president.

Imogen Holst conducting Music on the Meare, 1954

The club gave its first public concert on 26th August 1953 in Aldeburgh Parish Church in aid of the Friends of the Aldeburgh Festival, and the next year singers and recorder players performed Music on the Meare at Thorpeness during the Aldeburgh Festival. For many years the club continued this pattern of holding regular Club nights and occasional public concerts which raised funds for various causes.

Over the years the instrumental side of the club dwindled, with the result that outside orchestras have been engaged for concerts since 1982. The club singers, however, performed increasingly demanding works in several concerts a year and standards were raised. As the number of singers and scale of concerts grew, the club, now a choral society, performed in larger venues, including for the first time in April 1995, the Snape Maltings Concert Hall.

The Aldeburgh Music Club has performed a great wealth of music, both sacred and secular, since its formation, and members continue to meet together for the enjoyment of making music and to present public concerts in Aldeburgh and elsewhere in East Suffolk.

This collection comprises papers of the Aldeburgh Music Club from its foundation in 1952 to the present day, and includes annual general and committee meetings minutes, constitutions, subscription and financial papers, membership and attendance papers, choir rehearsal and concert schedules, programmes, press reviews, correspondence files and photographs.

For further details about this collection consult the online archive catalogue; collection reference AMC.