The Music Serenade

'true chamber music understanding'

The Music Serenade, formed in 1978 at the birth of Opera North by clarinetist Howard Rogerson, is a Leeds based chamber ensemble made up of wind and string players from the Orchestra of Opera North. Our aim is to provide a wide variety of chamber music, ranging from Baroque through to contemporary music, with imaginative and customised programming.

The Music Serenade's initial repertoire comprised music for wind sextet and octet - pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons - see Recordings. Since its beginnings as a wind ensemble, The Music Serenade has now evolved into an extremely flexible ensemble, enabling performances of all types of chamber music - large or small ensembles, mixed together in an infinite variety of formats - specifically tailored to suit programming wishes and/or promoters' budgets.

The Music Serenade has performed for BBC Radio 3 on several occasions (both live broadcasts and studio recordings) and has appeared for various music festivals, leisure services, music clubs and societies, universities, colleges and schools.  

Please refer to our repertoire list which gives some idea of the scope of music that The Music Serenade can offer. As well as the traditional concert setting, the ensemble can also provide incidental music for garden parties, weddings, fêtes, receptions, dinner parties, banquets, etc - with imagination the scope is endless!