September 1st 2021

Chipping Sodbury Annual General Meeting

Although we were unable to hold an AGM last year, and we have had no concerts since March of last year, the Committee feel it is important to meet again as a Society, so we can review the last 2 years, and look towards a busier future, with renewed energy and more concerts.

This year's AGM will be on Tuesday, September 21st at 7:30 pm in the Waters Room, in the Old Grammar School, beside the Baptist Church in Chipping Sodbury.

This is open to all those who were members during the 2019-20 season.

I regret to say that due to continuing uncertainties with high levels of Coronavirus infections, we will not be providing refreshments.

Looking forward to seeing members there.

Fred Willington

Chair, Chipping Sodbury Music Society

July 16th 2021

Rita Rees

It is with great sadness that we have learned that Rita Reese, a member of Chipping Sodbury Music Society and member of the Committee has passed away. 

Rita’s involvement in the Society goes back many decades, during which she gave so much support and hard work.  She was Chairman for several years, as had been David her husband.  In recent years she has been the Membership Secretary and only stood down in 2019.  She was such an enthusiastic supporter of the Society and contributed so much to the Society and the Committee, encouraging everyone with her distinctive sense of humour.

For our 70^th Season, in October 2017 she sponsored a wonderful concert by the Amadeus Orchestra, conducted by Philip Mackenzie, in memory of her husband David.

She and her support will be greatly missed by the Society and particularly the Committee.

Fred Willington

Chair, Chipping Sodbury Music Society

June 2021

We are delighted to announce that The Ardeton String Quartet have agreed to come and play at Chipping Sodbury Town Hall on October 12^th at 7:30 pm.  The Ardeton have played for us several times before and have always provided us with an excellent concert. They are also local artists and the Committee agreed that it was appropriate to celebrate excellent local musical talent, which we are so lucky to have close by.

We will announce details of the concert as soon as they are confirmed.

Fred Willington

Chair, Chipping Sodbury Music Society

May 2021.

The Music Society Committee met on May 2^nd, partially in person and partially via Zoom, to comply with Covid restrictions and to keep everyone as safe as possible.

It was agreed that we should plan for a concert in October with the understanding that hopefully by then most people in the country should be vaccinated and therefore restrictions around public performances will have been eased.  The concert would obviously comply with any restrictions current at that point and with any conditions of Chipping Sodbury Hall.   It was also agreed that we would look for local musicians to perform, where there would be least travel necessary and more easily cancelled or postponed if really necessary. 

The Society Secretary, Deb Willington, agreed to contact local musicians.

Fred Willington,

Chairman, Chipping Sodbury Music Society.

December 7^th 2020.

The Chipping Sodbury Music Society Committee had a discussion again this week to come to an aggreement over what we should plan for the rest of the 2020-21 Season. 

The consensus of opinion was that it is simplest to cancel the whole season.  Despite the wonderful news of vaccination against Covid 19 starting, the Committee felt that it could still be some time before vaccination has been rolled out enough for people to enjoy concerts as we like to, safely.  

Deb WIllington, the Secretary for the Music Society has been contacting the musicians for the remainder of the Season.  The South Glos Music Hub felt they would not be able to perform anyway as they have not been able to get togrether to practice this year.

The other musicians were very understanding and not surprised by our decision.

The Committee will have a discussion again in the Spring, when we hope to have a clearer idea as to the progress of vaccination and the possibility of having a more normal 2021-22 Season;  hopefully with most of the musicians whose concerts we had to cancel this season and last season.  If it looks possible, the Society may put on a celebratory concert during the Summer and then announce our 2021-22 Season details.

I would like to reassure everyone that we are committed to resuming our series of live concerts in Chipping Sodbury as soon as we feel we can safely.

Looking forward to our next Season,

Fred Willington,

Chairman, Chipping Sodbury Music Society.

August 14^th 2020:

The full committee met yesterday evening, 18^th August, conforming to social distancing measures. We met to discuss how we progress with the next Music Society season due to start in October.

After much discussion, and deliberation of all the issues around safely putting on concerts in the Town Hall, with heavy hearts, we agreed (unanimously) to cancel the concerts due in October, November and December this year.  Consequently, we hope our next concert will be on February 9^th 2021 and will feature Leo Popplewell, a cellist supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.

Our Honorary Secretary has already been in touch with the artists, so this decision will not be a surprise to them.  Sadly, many of their planned concerts had already been cancelled.  The December concert was to feature Ebonit Saxaphone Quartet, from Holland who had a tour of the UK planned, including Chipping Sodbury.  Ebonit contacted Deb last week to inform us that they were sadly cancelling our concert, as all the other venues of their UK tour had cancelled them already.

The Committee were reluctant to cancel these concerts acknowledging how important it is for these artists to perform after months of no live performances.  However, we felt that continuing uncertainty regarding the future of the Covid 19 pandemic and leading into the winter months we took the difficult decision.

The committee agreed to meet again in November this year to review the situation and hope that we will be able to put on the remaining concerts from February onwards, possibly adding an extra concert in June 2021.

See details of our 2020-21 Season

Any further changes will be updated here.

Thank you and continue to stay safe.

Fred Willington

Chair, Chipping Sodbury Music Society

July 21^st 2020:

Sadly, we had to cancell the last two concerts of our 2019-2010 Season.  The first concert on April 7th was the Bristol Chamber Choir, and the 2nd was on May 5^th was the Shirley Smart Trio.

We planned to start our 2020-21 Season 

in October.  We will be holding a Committee meeting in August to decide how we should move forward with this coming season.

When we have made any decisions updated information will be available on this page.

In the meantime, we will not be selling tickets in advance for our concerts and will are holding enlisting membership of the Society for the present.

Any changes will be updated here.

Thank you and continue to stay safe.

Fred Willington

Chair, Chipping Sodbury Music Society