Origins
Cockermouth’s musical life has long been richer than the town’s size would suggest. Cockermouth Harmonics – a mixed choir which over the years has performed many major masterpieces of the choral repertoire – was founded way back in the 1800s. The town now has three choirs. But most relevant to the beginnings of the Music Society in the early 1990s, perhaps, is that Cockermouth (with a population of only approximately 7,000) by then had a classical record shop which had been in existence for forty years. The catalyst for starting a society aiming to promote regular chamber music concerts, however, was the creation of the Kirkgate Centre out of a derelict school building, and the society began life as the Kirkgate Music Society. Unfortunately the Centre only has seating for 110, and no room for the accommodation of a piano. Only two of our concerts actually took place there, and the transition to Cockermouth Music Society took place in our second year.
Our very first concert, a sort of testing of the waters on 26 February 1994, was in fact hosted by the United Reformed Church, the Kirkgate Centre not yet being available. A performance by a string trio (low cost was a factor in the choice of players) was not an obvious crowd-puller. But 153 turned up, way beyond the official capacity of the building. With the exception of those two Kirkgate Centre concerts, and the occasional use of Christ Church, the URC was to be our home for the next thirty years. In 1996, with the aid of a grant from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts, we were able to acquire a Boston grand piano. And in 2014, this time with Arts Council help, it was upgraded to a Steinway model B. Lord Egremont has been a patron throughout. And in the early years our second patron was the late Robert Ponsonby, former controller of BBC Radio 3 and of the Proms festival.
David Lindley
