The Oxford & Cambridge Musical Club was founded in London in 1899 as a residential Club for Gentlemen. At the club's foundation, it was open (principally) to past and present members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The club's original purpose was the performance of chamber music but expanded over the years to include solo instrumental music, vocal music and orchestral music. Its first premises were at 47 Leicester Square but from 1914 to 1940 the club was situated at 6 Bedford Square.

The club has survived to the present day but is no longer constituted as a Gentlemen's Club. It is now run in association with the University College London Chamber Music Club and provides music-making activities in London with membership open to all. It also has close links with the Pro Corda Trust.

Club History

The heyday of the club in its original form was from 1900 to 1940 and many famous musicians, politicians and artists of the day were members. The first President of the Club was Dr. Joseph Joachim

Joseph Joachim

Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...

, the violinist and friend of the composer Brahms. At the establishment of the Club, a number of prominent people were invited to become honorary members, including the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour

Arthur Balfour

Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...

 - who succeeded Joachim as Club President, composers Sir Hubert Parry

Hubert Parry

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...

 and Sir Alexander Mackenzie and the conductor Hans Richter

Hans Richter (conductor)

Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...

.

The Club Archives are now held at the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

 Department of Special Collections in Oxford.

Prominent Members

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...

Ernest John Moeran

Ernest John Moeran

Ernest John Moeran was an English composer who had strong associations with Ireland .-Early life:...

Hugh Percy Allen

Anthony Asquith

Anthony Asquith

Anthony Asquith was a leading English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on The Winslow Boy and The Browning Version , among other adaptations...

Sir John Dykes-Bower

John Dykes Bower

Sir John Dykes Bower CVO was an English cathedral organist, who served in Truro Cathedral, Durham Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral-Background:John Dykes Bower was born on 13 August 1905 in Gloucester. He was one of four brothers...

E.M. Forster

Sir Compton Mackenzie

Percy Alfred Scholes

Lytton Strachey

Lytton Strachey

Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...

Sir Donald Francis Tovey

Sir Walford Davies

E.H. Fellowes

W.W. Cobbett

Gervase Elwes

Heathcote Stratham

Sir Percy Buck

Sir Walter Parratt

George Butterworth

George Butterworth

George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC was an English composer best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow and his song settings of A. E...

Geoffrey Shaw

Freddie Grisewood

Freddie Grisewood

Frederick Henry Grisewood, known as Freddy Grisewood was a British broadcaster, who had a long and varied career with the BBC...

Désiré Defauw

Désiré Defauw

Désiré Defauw was a Belgian conductor and violinist.He was professor of conducting at the Brussels Conservatory and was the first conductor of the Orchestre National de Belgique from 1937...

Lionel Tertis

Lionel Tertis

Lionel Tertis, CBE was an English violist and one of the first viola players to find international fame.Tertis was born in West Hartlepool, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, and initially studied the violin in Leipzig and at the Royal Academy of Music in London...

Sir Adrian Boult

Boris (Bernhard) Ord

Thomas F Dunhill

Thomas Dunhill

Thomas Frederick Dunhill was an English composer and writer on musical subjects. He is best-known for his song-cycle The Wind among the Reeds.-Life and career:Thomas Dunhill was born in Hampstead, London...

Harold Rutland

Patrick Hadley

Patrick Hadley

Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley was a British composer.-Biography:Patrick Sheldon Hadley was born on 5 March 1899 in Cambridge. His father, William Sheldon Hadley, was at that time a fellow of Pembroke College...

E. Markham Lee

Baron Frederic d'Erlanger

Frédéric Alfred d'Erlanger

Baron Frédéric Alfred d'Erlanger was an Anglo-French composer, banker and patron of the arts. His father, Baron Frederic Emile d'Erlanger, was a German, while his mother, Mathilde , was an American. One of four sons, his father was the head of a French banking house...