Music at Clare Hall
Clare Hall Affiliated Postdoc Dr Nikolai Kazantsev performs Bach Cello Suite No 1 in G Major, BMV 1007
The College’s Music Committee plans a rich range of concerts across the year. Concerts are planned by individual members of the Committee and typically take place on Saturday or Sunday evenings. We offer performances and lectures of all kinds of music by top musicians, from folk and world music to classical and baroque.
Drawing from a small rolling budget, which includes donations given generously by various College patrons, the Music Committee has brought Grammy award-winners and world-renowned musicians to audiences of over a thousand people per year in informal recitals provided at low cost (or free) and open to all.
The Music Committee welcomes involvement and suggestions for concerts from College members. If you would like to help with any concerts or join the Music Committee, please get in touch with Rashel Pakbaz.
Supporting Music at Clare Hall
We are incredibly grateful to those who support the music programme at Clare Hall, which ensures its continuation for the benefit of College members and Cambridge-wide audiences alike.
Even a small donation can make a big difference
A donation to music at Clare Hall brings immediate recognition to you and benefits for us. Here are some examples of what your gift can provide:
- £50 can pay for the printing of the ads or programmes for one of our concerts.
- £100 can pay for the tuning of the piano or a set of music for the choir.
- £200 can pay to commission part of a new composition
- £500 can sponsor a member of a string trio or an accompanist for the choir.
- £1,000 can cover the cost of a young soloist.
- £2,000 can sponsor a quartet for a full performance.
- £5,000 can make you the donor of an entire concert.
Anyone can donate
Students are encouraged to donate whatever they can. Music lovers with more resources are invited to make an annual gift of at least £100 to become Supporters. Those who make a gift of £500 or more will be recognised as Music Angels. If you are moved to make an even larger gift, we’d like to talk to you about how to use it for your greatest satisfaction. Unless you wish to remain anonymous, we will credit our benefactors by name in the printed concert programmes and the annual Review magazine. To receive ongoing recognition as either a Supporter or a Music Angel, donors would need to renew their gifts to music annually.
Supporter and Music Angel benefits
Music Supporter (£100-£499): programme and Review magazine recognition, invitation to pre-concert lectures, invitation to post-concert receptions
Music Angel (£500 and above): programme Review magazine recognition, invitation to pre-concert lectures, invitation to post-concert receptions, invitation to Music Gala dinner
If you would like to become a benefactor of music at the College, please do get in touch with our Alumni and Donor Relations team via development@clarehall.cam.ac.uk.
The Intimate Engagements Concert Series
Intimate Engagements is a chamber music series in which outstanding musicians accompany their performances with informal presentations, sharing with the audiences their musical journey of the programme performed. The series started in 2008 and has since then established itself as a uniquely enjoyable and stimulating contribution to musical life in Cambridge. Over the years the series has welcomed prominent artists who have covered a wide range of repertoire and topics.
You are warmly invited to join us for this academic year’s four Intimate Engagements concerts, live from the College’s Dining Hall:
19 October – Jâms Coleman & Lesley Hatfield – Concert Programme
22 February – Raphael Wallfisch & Simon Callaghan
7 June – Schubert’s Winterreise
Lucy Russell, Violin
Andrew Roberts, Violin
Ursula Smith, Cello
Alan George, Viola
Quartet-in-Residence
Clare Hall is pleased to currently be hosting the Fitzwilliam String Quartet as its Quartet-in-Residence. Its members are Fellow Commoners of the College, presenting concerts planned in collaboration with our Music Committee throughout the academic year.
Founded at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in 1968, international recognition came early for the FSQ as the first group to record and perform all fifteen Shostakovich string quartets, drawing on the players’ personal connection with the composer. Shostakovich travelled to York to hear FSQ’s performance of his thirteenth quartet, and this musical friendship (the composer’s own word) prospered from then on.
The FSQ has appeared regularly across the world, while making several award-winning recordings for Decca, Linn, and Divine Art. A long-term ambition to record Beethoven and Schubert on gut strings – following the success of previous discs on historical instruments – was finally initiated during their fiftieth anniversary season, with recordings of Schubert’s last four quartets (the C minor and G major are currently being released). The FSQ remains one of the few prominent quartets to play on older set-ups, yet simultaneously bringing about the addition of over 60 new works to the repertoire.
We are thrilled to present their programme of four Clare Hall concerts for 2024/25.
24 November – Fitzwilliam String Quartet
18 January – Fitzwilliam String Quartet featuring Noémi Győri
1 March – Fitzwilliam String Quartet: 50 years since Shostakovich’s death
12 April – Fitzwilliam String Quartet
Herschel Concert Series
Clare Hall is delighted to present five additional concerts for the 2023/2024 programme. The road outside Clare Hall was named for John Herschel, a brilliant Cambridge scientist who had great interest in the phenomenon of sound. His father, William Herschel, was an astronomer, but by profession was a musician and composer (he wrote 24 symphonies!). Thus, giving rise to the name ‘Herschel Concert Series’
Clare Hall is honoured to support young artists who are beginning their careers, but have already won great acclaim for their performances.
5 October – L’Isola | Roma: Il Palazzo – Concert Programme
9 November – Piano concert by Tyler Hay
1 February – Trio of voice, flute, and piano
16 March – Women Composers of the 19th and 20th Centuries
26 April – Continuum | Choral Music for Cambridge
17 May – Peihan Francesca He and Patrick Hemmerlé
Choir
Amid the stresses and focus of Cambridge academia and research, the Clare Hall choir offers weekly light relief through fun, relaxed, pressure-free music.
Formed in its current guise in 2018, the choir has become a regular fixture at college events including the Christmas, Burns’ Night and Foundation Feasts, as well as the Cricket Formal. The choir also enjoys performing at events and services elsewhere in Cambridge. These have included joint Evensong services with Robinson, Magdalene and Clare College Chapel Choirs, and St Botolph’s Parish Church, as well as a concert with Darwin College choir and a performance at ‘Sing’, hosted by Magdalene VoxSoc.
Plans for 2024 include the world premiere of a new Christmas carol by composer Ben Ponniah, which was commissioned by the college and kindly supported by a number of donors. The carol will be premiered at the college Christmas Feast in December.
Under the direction of its musical director Ben de Souza, Clare Hall choir has gained a reputation for being a relaxed, enjoyable and accessible choir, and is considered an integral part of college life. The choir is open to anyone affiliated with the college – graduate/PhD students, fellows, visiting fellows, tutors, staff and life members, as well as family members of the above – and meets every Monday evening in Robinson College chapel. New members are always welcome. 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 – bd402@cam.ac.uk. Ben is a Clare Hall graduate and is a freelance choral conductor and accordionist.
“As long as we live, there is never enough singing” – Martin Luther
Piano use
If you would like to play the piano in the Dining Hall, please email music@clarehall.cam.ac.uk and this can be arranged through the Music Committee.
Music Committee members 2024/25
- Robert Anderson (Chair)
- Joanna Womack (Treasurer)
- Rashel Pakbaz (Secretary and Administrator)
- Patrick Hemmerlé (Artistic Director of Intimate Engagements and Musician-in-Residence)
- Alan Short (President of Clare Hall)
- Andrew Blake (Vice President of Clare Hall)
- Ben de Souza (Choir Director and Life Member)
- Eric Nye (Fellow Commoner and Life Member)
- Caroline Humphrey (Honorary Fellow)
- Dominik Gryzbon (Audio Engineer and Producer)
- Jeremy Thurlow (Lecturer in Music and Director of Studies at Robinson College; Affiliated Lecturer, Faculty of Music)
- Eleanor Ryan (PhD student)
- Communications & Marketing Manager (concert publicity lead)
