Oliver Lister has taken over the reins as Chairman of Evesham & District Music Club from Tom Hutchinson, having served 9 years in the role.

“I am very pleased to offer my services to the Club, which has been bringing first class professional musicians and classical music to the area for 69 years,” says Oliver. “It is an exciting time to be taking the Club forward and we hope to be able to spread the word to the next generation, using our new website - edmc@website.com - and facebook. We are looking to widen the programme and this year we are excited to be promoting our first opera - Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ on 23rd September at the Evesham Arts Centre as our opening concert. This will be a welcome addition to our continued programme of highly professional soloists and groups through to next March.”

Oliver, a local music teacher and who was lived in the area for nearly 25 years, has always been involved in the music of Evesham including being past musical director of Evesham’s Festival of Music, leading the long established Evesham Singers and being musical director for quite a number of shows with EODS and the Phoenix Theatre groups. He is now adding his influence into the local classical music offerings.

“We need to keep the classical music scene coming to the area alongside the other wide range of performers at the Arts Centre, The Regal and other venues. We are spoilt with key musical centre like Birmingham, Cheltenham, Chipping Camden and Longborough being on our doorstep, but in the last 10 years EDMC had brought the likes of Emma Johnson, Ben Grosvenor, Paul Lewis and Jayson Gillham as well as The Flowers Brass Band to play. All of these are well used to performing for audiences numbering in the thousands.” EDMC hopes that as many classical music lovers will support all the events this year and help to keep the Club alive to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2048.