About Us

Founded in 1947, Skipton Music is recognised as one of the most successful voluntary music societies in the country. Over the years, we have been honoured to welcome such eminent artists as the contralto Kathleen Ferrier (1948), pianist/composer Benjamin Britten & tenor Peter Pears (1952), guitarists Andrés Segovia (1952) and Julian Bream (1960), cellist Jacqueline du Pré (1965) and violinist Nigel Kennedy (1986). Many world-class ensembles have also performed for us, including the Heath, Endellion and Escher String Quartets. In 2022/2023, we celebrated our 75th anniversary with a highly successful themed season of concerts entitled ‘Hidden Treasures: Celebrating Women Composers Across the Ages.’

Skipton Music has always been keen to give a platform to younger, rising-star performers. Indeed some of the famous names above were in the early stages of their professional careers when they played for us in Skipton. Recent highlights in this regard include the South African cellist Abel Selaocoe, BBC Radio 3 ‘New Generation Artists’ the Consone Quartet, trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, and Ariel Lanyi, bronze medal winner at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021. If you would like to know more about the artists who have performed for us over the past decade or so, please take a look at the archive on our Concerts Page.

Our six annual concerts normally take place on Tuesday evenings between September and March at Skipton Town Hall and everyone is welcome to attend any of these performances. However, most of our audience consists of season ticket holders and the support of these regular visitors is central to our viability as a not-for-profit charity. Season tickets are exceptionally good value, offering all six concerts for the price of approximately four single tickets as well as guaranteeing the same seat for all concerts. We also like to make what we do affordable for younger people, which is why we recently introduced £10 tickets for under-30s in addition to our traditional £2 tickets for under-19s. In spring 2023, we also re-introduced our annual afternoon Schools Concert (after a hiatus due to the pandemic) and were proud to welcome over 170 pupils from local primary schools.

You can discover lots more general and up-to-date news about our artists, concerts and other activities through our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (for quick access, click on the icons on this page). Please do follow us on social media if you can and help us spread the word about what we do.

We look forward to welcoming you to our concerts this season!

Committee

Honorary PresidentBrian Davies
ChairFrank Finlay
TreasurerPeter Leach
General SecretaryCharles Dobson
Concerts SecretarySally Johnson
Additional Support with Press and PublicityElaine Annable