Louis Carus (1927 –2012)
The concert on 20 September 2012 was dedicated to the memory of Louis Carus, a loyal supporter and committee member of Malvern Concert Club, who died on 19 August.
Professor Louis Carus was a renowned violinist, teacher and orchestral player who played a leading role in Scottish musical life. He was born in India, educated at Rugby, and thereafter was a leader of many ensembles, several of them in Scotland. He was a musician who knew how to generate confidence.
After studying at the Brussels Conservatoire and Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory, he displayed a penchant for chamber music that stayed with him for the rest of his career. He co-founded the Scottish Piano Trio, the Scottish Piano Quartet, the Clarina Ensemble and the New Music Group of Scotland, whose encouraging of major Scottish composers gained it an important place in the Edinburgh Festival.
Outside Scotland, Louis Carus was leader of the Northern Sinfonia, sub-leader of John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Orchestra and, from 1975, principal of the Birmingham School of Music, where he helped to develop the school’s graduate courses, and founded the Granville Ensemble.
As co-founder of the St Endellion Music Festival in Cornwall (from which the Endellion String Quartet took its name), he was involved with this event for half a century, leading the festival orchestra and establishing the conductor Richard Hickox as one of its key musicians. After his retirement in 1987, Louis Carus continued teaching and adjudicating, and was still playing shortly before his death last month.
With grateful acknowledgments to Conrad Wilson, The Herald, Glasgow
(posted 23.09.12)
Annual General Meeting 2012-13
The Club’s 2012-13 Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday 26 June at 7.00pm in the Carice Room at the Elgar Birthplace Museum, Lower Broadheath, near Worcester.
The Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer & Membership Secretary reported on another successful season. All officers were re-elected en bloc. There were no vacancies on the committee, as all members have a third year to serve.
The formal business was followed by a fascinating talk by Alec Roth [right] about his music, including the new string quartet commissioned by the Club, with the support of The Kay Trust,one of the major events of our 2013-14 Season. He played excerpts from some of the recordings of his work – a discography can be found on his website alecroth.com.
(posted 01.07.13)
