The origins of Letchworth Music Club go back to the International Club which was formed during the second world war for refugees from Europe. The Club met at Howgills in South View, offering English and shorthand lessons, lectures and concerts. As the years passed, the Club gradually lost its international aspect and activities dwindled to an annual series of concerts.

In 1949 it was reconstituted as the Letchworth Music Club and its first season comprised nine concerts, held on Wednesday evenings, with an annual subscription of 10s 6d, (52.5p) In 1950, with some trepidation, the Club ventured on its first public concert in the old Broadway Hall, when students from London Music Colleges performed the Schubert Octet. Three of those students, William Waterhouse, Thea King and Hugh Maguire, all became household names in the musical world. A dearth of committee members in 1954 almost meant the demise of the Club, but several members stepped in and records shortly afterwards show a membership of 79 members, while artists’ fees for nine concerts was £90! 

Membership continued to rise and in 1959 a member offered to guarantee a large-scale public concert against financial loss. The result was a recital by the Aeolian String Quartet in the old Grammar School, which exceeded all expectations. Over 400 tickets were sold a week before the concert and people were turned away at the door. This success and a limited guarantee against loss by Letchworth UDC, (and later LGCC) led the Club to include two large scale concerts in its annual programme, with five smaller ones at Howgills. After several venues, the public concerts, which were held on Saturdays and Sundays, settled on Plinston Hall and continued until the 1989/1990 season, when LGCC withdrew financial support. Since that time all concerts have been held at Howgills and although on a smaller scale, the quality of performers has remained.

Over the years the Club has welcomed many internationally famous musicians. The list is far too extensive to list them all, but include John Lill, Christopher Hogwood, Peter Katin, Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich, the Melos and Nash Ensembles, The London Mozart Players, the Endellion and Kodaly String Quartet and playing with the then President, Thea King, Sir Colin Davis, at that time an untitled clarinettist! One of the purposes of the Club has been to offer young musicians and local musicians an opportunity to play in an intimate chamber music setting and has welcomed The Kungsbacka Piano Trio, Richard Uttley and Savitri Grier, Mishka Rushdie Momen, Emma Halnan, Ben Goldscheider and a young Jonathan Lemalu, who was able to add Howgills to his CV in addition to the Sydney Opera House. Richard Sisson and Friends was the billing for a December concert and you may imagine the surprise and delight when two of the “Friends” turned out to be Susan Bullock and Petroc Trelawney.

Inevitably there have been a number of crises in the past 80+ years, including a power cut at Howgills, which saw the concert continue by the light of hurricane lanterns, while Herts County Council’s withdrawal of permission to hold an evening concert Norton School only three days before the event, led to a superhuman effort by the committee to switch the concert to the afternoon. Various musicians have turned up without their music, which entailed frantic phone calls, while one forgot his suit trousers, so had to borrow a pair. On another occasion a member of the audience became trapped in the loo due to a faulty lock (now repaired!) and the second half of the concert was delayed while the committee and even some of the performers helped to rescue him.

Visitors have always been welcomed to the Music Club, but in recent years it was suggested that some people might not appreciate this fact and committee therefore decided to drop the word “club” from our name. Today we are known as Letchworth Music with our doors open to everyone.