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The group was founded in 1995 in Croydon with Giles Easterbrook, Reginald Smith-Brindle, Ludger Hofmann-Engl, John Palmer and Peter Anthony Monk as founding members. At present Hofmann-Engl is the chair person and Peter Anthony Monk the treasurer.
The group has organized more than 10 concerts at Croydon Clock Tower, Farifield Halls, the Charles Cryer Theater in Sutton and the Croydon Parish Church and has been involved in the organization of another 5 Concerts in collaboration with Fairfield Halls. Most of the concerts attracted the local press and have throughout received enthusiastic responses. In one instance Ruth Goslett (Croydon Advertiser, May 2nd, 1997) compared the group to Russia’s Mighty Handful and France’s Les Six. Even if such comparison seems overstated, it pays tribute to the fact that the group succeeded in putting on more than 30 premieres of living composers including young composers like Sam Haydn and Sadie Harrison as well as established figures like Smith-Brindle. The group also made possible a performance of a Coleridge-Taylor piece alongside with the music of Hurlstone, both composers who had during their life time strong associations with Croydon. The practice of the group to record their concerts have led to the BBC archiving the latest CD and the Bavarian Radio having scheduled the broadcast of several recordings produced by the group.
However, the group is not only committed to performing contemporary music, but to supporting local students through composers’ workshops. A pilot project of this kind brought composer Hofmann-Engl into the classroom of GCSE students over a period of 6 weeks, completing a compositional task together with the students and culminating in the performance of the students’ work.
The group has received support form Croydon, the Bliss trust and the Britten-Pears Foundation, the Bliss Trust, the London Borough of Croydon, the Holst Foundation and the ICA.
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