Oxford and Cambridge Musical Club

The turn of the century - 1899/1901 - saw perhaps the richest blossoming ever of English musical composition, with Elgar, Delius and Holst already at the peak of their powers. In 1899 the young Vaughan Williams took an active part in launching the O&CMC under its founder-president Josef Joachim. Its aim was to provide for graduates after leaving university many of the same facilities for music which they had enjoyed in the two University music clubs.

A hundred years ago such an ambition was not unrealisable. In less than a year the OCMC had secured West End premises in the one-time house of Sir Joshua Reynolds in Leicester Square, where it established itself as a gentlemen’s club with music-making facilities in addition to residential and catering services. In 1914 it moved to larger premises at 6 Bedford Square. During the whole of this period chamber music concerts were held regularly in the Club premises

By the time the Bedford Square club-house had to be abandoned, early in the second world war, a total of 911 concerts had been held at the Club. A migratory period followed after the war with ten concerts in four years, six in the fifth year, and then a gradual acceleration to 1953/4 when the Library of the Mary Ward Settlement and, finally, the Joint Staff Common Room at University College, became the regular concert room, and has remained so to this day.

A comparison of the programmes of 1900 with those of 1999 shows that the blend of classical and modern chamber music and solo and ensemble singing has not materially changed. The main innovation of recent years has been the introduction of periodical concert performances of opera, using Club forces drawn from the 250 membership, and occasional concerts by a Club orchestra. Though a club-house of its own is no longer a practical possibility the OCMC can still begin the 21st century as it began the 20th - with regular concerts by members, given to audiences of other members and their guests.