About Us
The Portobello Chamber Music Group is a friendly, informal gathering of amateur musicians who meet regularly to play chamber music for fun and enjoyment. We don't aim to produce polished performances for public concerts. Instead we explore music from a wide range of composers, sometimes failing miserably in our efforts and cheerfully moving on to the next piece.
We welcome musicians of all ages (18+) who enjoy making music together.
To avoid becoming an orchestra we restrict new membership to players of instruments required to maintain a balance for playing chamber music. Occasionally we may suspend recruitment temporarily, but as we quietly retire members who never attend sessions it is always worth trying to join at a later date.
Details of vacancies will be posted on our "Join Now" page
How it works!
All members are sent an email at the start of the week with details of the next event. It contains an RSVP link which will give you a quick way to indicate your attendance, which you must do by Friday evening. Details will also be posted on this website from where you can also RSVP once you have logged in.
Music is selected to suit the ensemble attending. Where possible, pieces will be original and scored for the instruments expected. Occasionally someone may have to pretend they are playing an oboe. We have managed so far, to find music for even the most unlikely combinations. The session is only cancelled if less that two members sign up. We have a large choice of duets and trios!
Late on Friday all attendees will be emailed a list of the music to be played on the Sunday. All the music will be downloadable from our Music Library. We don't maintain a paper library and members are responsible for printing their own parts. Most members now use an iPad or similar to display the music to save on paper and printer ink.
On Sunday you only need to bring your instrument, music and a music stand.
Fees
We charge attendees £8.00 to help cover the cost of the hall hire. We collect this using card or contactless payment - we don't accept cash - all the banks in Portobello have closed!
There is no charge if the fee is a problem for you. We value your company.
Privacy Notice
Until we are able to communicate by telepathy we need to store email addresses of members. We also keep names, passwords and the instruments played. All of these are stored in an offline database with the passwords being encrypted. We don't sell or give this information to anyone.