The Cartref Collective was founded in October 2024 with the goal of performing several concerts every year in the home towns of its members to share classical music with their local communities.

The founding members met during their undergraduate degrees at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where they graduated with first class honours in 2023. Since then they have established extensive performance careers.

Pianist Lizzie Bonsell is a chamber musician, repetiteur and teacher. Violist Mungo Everett-Jordan and clarinettist Ellie Kershaw have gone on to postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music.

For their inaugural concert at the Church of St Lawrence in Alton on December 15 at 3pm they will perform works by Brahms and Schumann, including some of Brahms’ most well loved songs arranged for clarinet, viola and piano, as well as an original work for the ensemble by Schumann, his Märchenerzälungen, meaning fairy tales.

The collective would like to share classical music with a wider audience within their communities, giving all access to listen for free with a retiring donation at the end of their concerts if people feel able to support the collective.