Newsletter: Events at Clare Hall, Easter 2025
Dear Clare Hall members and friends,
Please find below a list of events taking place this week and beyond, to which you are warmly invited.
Upcoming Events
Tuesday 29 April – Tuesday 17 June 2025, 7.30pm
Clare Hall Colloquium
Clare Hall’s Colloquia provide members of the College – especially (but not exclusively) Visiting Fellows and Life Members – with an opportunity to present their research, whether in its early stages or already published, in a friendly setting. They are a great way to discuss your ideas, meet fellow members and to contribute to our vibrant community. The full Easter Term 2025 programme can be found here.
Saturday 3 May 2025, 4pm
BODIES: Discover Movement Through Contemporary Dance
In this inclusive class, movers of all abilities are invited to be curious around body movement and awareness. We will do so through the versatility of contemporary dance: use of breath, contraction, release, fall, suspension, use of space, and much more. We will focus alternatively on self body-awareness, and on group engagement and interaction. Come along on your own or with friends, housemates or partners: you will enjoy the workshop in either case! The registration deadline has now passed.
Mondays, starting 5 May 2025, 5:30-6:30pm
Clare Hall Cricket Club practice sessions
Fancy trying a new sport or dusting off your pads to play for Clare Hall?
Well, Corpus Christi is kindly letting us use their nets for practice. Every Monday from the 5th of May, we have weekly nets or practice sessions from 5:30pm to 6:30pm. We’ll meet at the porters’ lodge at around 5pm and head over together. For those who don’t know where the ground is, it is a mere 11-minute walk from the porter’s lodge:
There’s absolutely no need to have any experience at all, we’ll teach you how to play cricket. Of course, if you’re already an experienced cricketer we are very keen for you to be there too!
You can stay up to date with the latest info by subscribing here. You can also find us on our WhatsApp community group.
Sunday 11 May 2025, 6pm
Clare College Choral Evensong, Easter 2025
All members of Clare Hall are warmly welcome to Clare Choral Evensong, sung by the Clare College Choir on Sunday 11th May 2025, at 6pm in Clare Chapel. This service focuses on the music of Benjamin Britten, one of the most important British composers of the 20th century. The service is followed by drinks in the ante-chapel, and then by a roast supper in Hall for those who would like to stay (£7.70, which can be paid on the night). Please register through the form on this page.
Tuesday 13 May to Saturday 17 May 2025, 7pm
The 67s: a play by MPhil student William Lloyd
Clare Hall MPhil student William Lloyd has written a play on the experiences of Canadian soldiers in the First World War, which is being staged by ADC Theatre with funding from the CUADC at Corpus Playroom from Tuesday, May 13 to Saturday, May 17th. The play was written during his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, and the final product is part theatrical production, part historical research project, and incorporates a host of primary sources. He is now building upon the research in his MPhil dissertation. Come out to support a fellow Clare Hall member! More information can be found here.
Thursday 15 May 2025, 5pm
Lorna Casselton Memorial Lecture
On behalf of our sister college, St Cross Oxford, everyone is very welcome to attend the 2025 Lorna Casselton Memorial Lecture, entitled “The Role of Fungi in Solving Planetary Crises.” The lecture will be given by Dr Andrea Hinwood (Chief Scientist, United Nations Environment Programme), at 5 pm on Thursday 15th May in the Mathematical Institute Lecture Theatres 1 and 2, Woodstock Road, Oxford.
The Lecture will also be livestreamed. Admission is free, but booking is required via the website:
https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/event/the-role-of-fungi-in-solving-planetary-crises
Thursday 15 May – Thursday 5 June 2025, 2:15-4pm
The Betty Behrens Seminar on Classics of Historiography
The Betty Behrens Seminar on Classics of Historiography offers a unique opportunity for students and scholars to reflect on some great historical works and engage in discussion with renowned experts. Read more about this term’s fantastic speakers and book your place through this page.
Thursday 15 May 2025, 7:30pm
Art and Architecture SIG: Film Screening
Join the Art and Architecture Special Interest Group for a film screening of Gillo Pontecorvo, La Battaglia di Algeri – Battle of Algiers (1966). The screening will be held in the Clare Hall Meeting Room, from 7:30pm.
Friday 16 May 2025, 2-6pm
The Betty Behrens Seminar on Classics of Historiography: Special Session
The Betty Behrens Seminar on Classics of Historiography has reached its third year of life, bringing to Clare Hall almost forty outstanding historians from the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
To celebrate this achievement, thanks to the Italian Research Project “Exile, Transnational Intellectual Networks, Knowledge Transfer: The Italian Case between 1940s-1960s”, funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU, we acknowledge the work of a great historian who escaped from Fascist Italy and established his career both in the United Kingdom, at the University College London, and in the United States, at the University of Chicago. Interestingly, one of the most significant starting points of Arnaldo Momigliano’s academic journey can be found precisely in his first lectures given at Cambridge in 1940 on “Peace and Liberty in the Ancient World”.
To address his contribution to the creation of a cultural bridge between Italy and England (along with the United States), the Betty Behrens Seminar will present a special session entitled “Arnaldo Momigliano’s Historiography between Italy and England” on Friday, May 16th 2025 (2-6 pm), with two main lectures given by internationally renowned intellectuals Carlo Ginzburg and Oswyn Murray.
Read more and book your place on Eventbrite here. The session will also be streamed online.
Friday 16 May 2025, 5:30pm
Family Supper
Join us for a Family Supper starting in the Meeting Room at 5.30pm where we do a craft activity, before heading for supper at about 6pm. After supper we will return to the Meeting Room to watch a film together if there is enough demand.
There’s no need to book – this is an informal event and dinner will be the regular dining hall with usual prices, and half price for children. Family suppers are organised by Chandy Nath and Susanah Salter.
Saturday 17 May 2025, 7:30pm
Peihan Francesca He and Patrick Hemmerlé
In this concert, Clare Hall is happy to present one of the brightest young talents emerging on the international scene.
Peihan Francesca He, 12 years old, is currently studying under Dr Robin Wilson. Francesca started learning violin at age 8 and was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music at age 9. In 2022, Francesca won First Prize at the Danubia Talents International Music Competition and the American Protégé Music Talent Competition, earning an invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall. She also achieved First Prize and the Exceptional Young Talent Special Prize at both the Paris and London Grand Prize Virtuoso Competitions, leading to performances at the Cité de la Musique-Philharmonie de Paris and the Royal Albert Hall. Additionally, she won First Prize at the Fiorito International Music Competition. In 2023, Francesca performed with the Vienna Opera Ball Orchestra under Alastair Willis at the Vienna Konzerthaus. This performance was broadcasted on PBS TV. Francesca plays a 1775 ‘ex Franz Ries’ Anselmo Bellosio violin.
Sunday 18 May 2025, 6pm
Clare Hall and Emmanuel College Joint Evensong
The Clare Hall choir will be performing in a joint Evensong with Emmanuel College on Sunday 18th May. The service is 6pm and will be in Emmanuel College Chapel. The service will include music by Thomas Attwood Walmisley, John Goss and Amy Beach. All are welcome to attend.
Wednesday 21 May 2025, 7pm
Whitsun Feast
Get ready to indulge in an evening of elegance and delight at the Clare Hall Whitsun Feast on 21st May 2025! There will be a drinks reception starting at 7pm, before dinner in the dining hall at 7:30pm. Bookings are now open via Upay, and will close on 14th May. Secure your spot early via Upay to ensure you don’t miss out on this unforgettable evening! Dress code is black tie.
Thursday 29 May 2025, 7:30pm
Art and Architecture SIG: Film Screening
Join the Art and Architecture Special Interest Group for a film screening of Gianfranco Rosi, Fuocoammare – Fire at Sea (2016). The screening will be held in the Clare Hall Meeting Room, from 7:30pm.
Saturday 7 June 2025, 7:30pm
Schubert’s Winterreise with Jean-François Rouchon and Billy Eidi
Schubert’s Winterreise hardly needs an introduction. It is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest song cycles in the repertoire, a work of exceptional depth and emotional intensity. Composed 1827, a year before Schubert’s premature death from syphilis, it is a reflection of his state of mind at this stage in his life. The dark mood of the “horrifying songs” as Schubert called them, puzzled his friends exceedingly. Like many of the great masterpieces, its acceptance by the general public was a slow process. Jean-François Rouchon and Billy Eidi are regular partners in song and lieder repertoire, and have a distinguished career in France. It is a rare chance to be able to hear them in England, in a cycle they have often performed together.
Saturday 21 June – Sunday 22 June 2025
CHBC 30th Anniversary Events
It’s time to celebrate Clare Hall Boat Club’s 30th Anniversary! And what better way to celebrate than over the 2025 May Bumps weekend, Saturday 21-Sunday 22 June 2025. Join us for the three events we’re hosting in honour of CHBC glory on the Cam since 1995, including a Bumps Tent on the final day of May Bumps, a Gala Dinner, and a Morning Paddle. Read more about the events and the details for booking your place here.
Current Exhibitions
Thursday 1 May – Thursday 12 June 2025
Fen & Flow: an exhibition of paintings by Fred Ingrams
Clare Hall is pleased to present an exhibition by Fred Ingrams, an artist inspired by the landscapes of the Fens and the Flow country of Caithness.
The artist showed a talent for drawing and painting and began his career with a spell at Camberwell and St Martin’s School of Art. His early career was spent in the lively environment of Soho, London. He worked for several magazines as graphic designer and artistic director. He also continued to paint and was exhibited in several London galleries. In the 1990s the artist moved to Norfolk and found in the Fenland countryside his true vocation. Here he discovered his affinity with the landscape which he has painted ever since. Those who know this linear, flat, man-manipulated landscape report that the artist has captured something precious of the essence of this landscape. More recently he has discovered that other flat land – Caithness’s Flow country. Lying in the far northeast of Scotland, the Flow country is formed from ancient rock, scoured by ice in the last ice age and now made up of peat bogs and lochs. Both landscapes speak of nature -one tamed and utilised for agriculture, one forgotten and remote, both are fragile and vulnerable to climate change and both stimulate Fred’s particular perception of these flat and evocative places.
Fred gives life, movement and vigour to overlooked landscapes of Britain. We hope that viewers will respond to these landscapes and be captivated as many before them.
Ongoing
The Bell Collection of British Studio Pottery, 1920-1980
A rotating display of some 320 pieces of studio ceramics. Learn more at https://www.clarehall.cam.ac.uk/bellcollection/
Activities and Societies
Monday, 5 May 2025
Clare Hall Book Club
Join the College’s Book Club as they discuss There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak. All College members are welcome to attend in-person, meeting in Clare Hall’s Meeting Room, or via Zoom. If you are not on the mailing list and would like to be, please send an email to gloria.carnevali@icloud.com, confirming your Clare Hall connection and putting the following as the email title: I would like to join the Book Club mailing list.
Learn more about the Book Club on this page.
Mondays and Fridays, 25 April – 20 June 2025
Pilates Sessions – Easter Term 2025
We are delighted to host pilates classes at Clare Hall throughout Easter Term. The classes will be held on Mondays during lunchtime, with additional bi-weekly Friday evening classes. Pilates is a form of low-impact exercise that aims to strengthen muscles while improving postural alignment and flexibility.
A full list of dates and the sign up sheet can be found here.
Tuesdays, 29 April – 17 June 2025
Mindful Meditation Sessions
Through mindfulness we cultivate attention to the here and now. We aim to witness our thoughts and feelings with detachment. We develop concentration, peace of mind and enjoyment of life with all its challenges.
As a group, we explore different means of developing mindfulness, including relaxation, guided meditation and attention to the breath or to a mantra. The sessions are led by Elizabeth Garnsey, and meet in the King Room on Main Site on Tuesdays 1-2pm. The door is open 1-2 but you are welcome to slip in and out whenever convenient for you. All members of the college and friends are welcome, including students, staff, fellows, researchers and visitors. Please contact ewg11@cam.ac.uk with any questions.
Thursdays and Sundays, 4 May – 19 June 2025
Yoga Sessions – Easter Term 2025
We are delighted to host regular lunchtime yoga sessions, starting on 8 May 2025. Due to new instructor arrangements, the weekday lunchtime sessions will now occur on Thursdays.
In addition, we offer Sunday afternoon yoga after the allotment sessions, starting on 4 May 2025.
Please sign up for both sessions through the spreadsheet here.
Various Dates
Choir Practice
A reminder that Clare Hall Choir practice takes place in Robinson College Chapel every Monday (in term-time, but not always restricted to the official Cambridge term dates) from 7:30-9pm. New members are always welcome, and no previous singing or musical experience is necessary. The only requirement is that you want to sing and have fun doing it! If you are interested in joining, please email Ben de Souza, the Choir’s Director, who is a Clare Hall Associate, freelance choral conductor and accordionist: bd402@cam.ac.uk.
Recent recordings of the choir can also be found on our YouTube channel.