Valerie, Tracy and Claire met through Chertsey Orchestra, where Valerie plays flute, Tracy plays oboe and cor anglais, and Claire is the founder and conductor. Thanks to the orchestra rehearsals and social events, they became good friends and in late 2024, they decided it would be fun to play some music together in a smaller group.
They began by playing flute duets and piano accompaniment. However, they soon discovered that if the 2nd flute parts were played an octave lower on the viola, the tone complimented the flute especially well. Initially, their repertoire was Christmas carols; they made their first public appearance as the Musica Sempre Trio at Chertsey Orchestra’s 2024 Christmas concert.
The name ‘Musica Sempre’ is Italian (the language in which the majority of musical directions are written) and means ‘Music Always’. They chose this because music is so important in all their lives and always will be.
When January 2025 arrived, the Musica Sempre Trio continued to rehearse and began to expand their repertoire in a non-Christmas direction. As part of this process, they also added some new instrumental configurations to utilise their different skills, with Tracy playing oboe or cor anglais and Claire playing violin or cello. The combination of instruments that they use results in very unique and beautiful arrangements.
They love to play a wide variety of easy listening music, from the 16th Century to the present day and including classical, folk, film and rock/pop. Some of their repertoire has been adapted from flute duet music very kindly recommended by Valerie’s flute teacher Barbara, the rest has been adapted from Claire’s string quartet catalogue or has been custom-arranged from scratch by Claire or Tracy.
The Musica Sempre Trio gave their debut concert ‘A Romantic Interlude’ on 20th September 2025; it was very much enjoyed by their audience and they raised £667 for Woking & Sam Beare Hospice.
Their next concert is ‘Peace, Love & Harmony’ on 17th October 2026. See the Events page for details.
