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If you are new to Skipton Music, then please allow us to introduce ourselves: founded in 1947, we are a not-for-profit charity run by a team of local volunteers. Each year we organise six world-class chamber music concerts on Tuesday evenings between September and March at the magnificently refurbished Skipton Town Hall.
For 2024/2025, we’re delighted once again to be welcoming internationally renowned artists alongside award-winning younger musicians in concerts that showcase a wide range of instrumental and vocal groups and soloists. The repertoire is equally varied with music from Hildegard von Bingen, Frédéric Chopin and Claude Debussy together with living composers such as Errollyn Wallen, Judith Bingham and James MacMillan.
If you like the look of this year’s concerts, please do consider buying a season ticket. The cultural sector still hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic, and recent high levels of inflation have brought additional cost pressures. Your season tickets therefore provide us with a stable financial platform to continue supporting professional musicians as well as enhancing the cultural life of Skipton and the surrounding areas. Buying a ticket for the full season in advance also gives you all six concerts for the price of approximately four single tickets and guarantees you the same seat for every performance. Our popular concerts have continued to draw ever larger audiences, and I am pleased that we have been able to keep all our tickets at the same price for a third consecutive season.
Finally, the concerts we promote rely for their continued success on the practical expertise and skills of our volunteers. At last year’s Annual General Meeting—and as notified on a number of occasions via the mailing list— our Concerts Secretary, Treasurer and Chair gave two years’ advanced notice of their intention to step down as trustees, after a combined total of some 25 years of volunteering. All undertook to continue with normal activities for the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 concert series, if re-elected, but would definitely not be seeking re-election thereafter.
In order to manage a smooth succession and to ensure future concert seasons, therefore, Skipton Music needs new trustees to join the committee as soon as possible and to assume the above roles when they fall vacant. From a practical point of view and, in particular, to effect a timely handover that allows an element of shadowing, new officers will have to be in place by the end of summer 2024—at the very latest— for formal election at AGM at the end of October.
If you think you have the relevant know-how, time and enthusiasm to get involved, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via skiptonmusic@gmail.com to find out more about the respective roles.
Frank Finlay
Chair of Skipton Music
