Cookham Discussion Board

I am sorry to tell you that the Society has had to cancel the final two concerts in our 2019-2020 MMS concert season due to the coronavirus crisis.  This probably comes as no surprise to you, but is very disappointing for us and the artists.  The concert on 23rd April was to have been a piano recital by Marie François.  The Celebrity Concert on 21st May would have featured the Heath Quartet with Bjorg Lewis, cello, and Tim Ridout, viola.  Both these concerts are now cancelled, but we hope that we shall be able to engage the performers for a concert in the future.

In addition we had to cancel the concert by the Chamber Philharmonic Europe last month;  they were turned back at Calais by the authorities on their way here, and in any case Norden Farm had to close its doors the day before the date of the concert. Performers generally are being hit very hard by this crisis; as an example, Marie Francois has had no fewer than nine concerts cancelled with consequent loss of income, and the Heath Quartet have had eleven concerts in April and May and a tour of the USA cancelled.

If you purchased tickets for any of these concerts, you are of course entitled to be compensated for these cancellations. You will be contacted by the Norden Farm Box Office to offer you a credit to your NF account, a refund of the value of your tickets or to donate to Norden Farm itself.  But we are making a special appeal to ask you to consider donating all or part of the value of your tickets to the artists to help them at a time when their earnings have suddenly completely dried up through no fault of their own.  To make a donation to the artists instead of to NF, please tell the NF Box Office that you would like to do so.

With regard to our next season, it is very difficult to finalise our plans at the moment because of the current uncertainties.  We hope that the situation will become clearer as time passes and, in any event, we shall make an announcement sometime in August. 

If you have any comments or queries, please feel free to contact us by email at info@maidenheadmusicsociety.org.
During the enforced lockdown, many musicians have made recordings of their performances freely available for streaming or downloading.  Several of these can be found at http://www.classical-music.com/concertlivestreams.  We hope you will be able to take advantage of these offers to continue to enjoy musical performances.

We thank you for your support of the Society and classical music in Maidenhead, and hope to present concerts again before too long.  We trust that you are finding some respite in music from the stresses of lockdown, and we wish you all the best for your health and welfare.