Free monthly concerts will return to a Welwyn Garden City venue from April. 

Friends Music relaunches at the Quaker Meeting House in WGC on April 14.

Friends Music at QMH on Handside Lane was a regular Welwyn Garden City fixture for nearly 20 years from 2003 until organisers were forced to take a break in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.  

Cellist Tim Gill has now come on board to help revive the monthly concerts.

A Friends Music spokesperson said: "We are delighted that Tim Gill, a well-known professional cellist and regular performer at the Quaker Meeting House and at the Welwyn Garden Concert Club, has stepped forward to get the concerts started again.

"Tim has fond memories of playing at the QMH as a teenager, and even played in the inaugural concert of the most recent series.

"As our new artistic director he has already lined up some great concerts this year."

The new Friends Music series will be held at 6pm on the second Sunday of the month. All concerts will be at the Quaker Meeting House in Handside Lane.

The first concert back on Sunday, April 14 will feature Tim Gill and his quartet of Thomas Bowes (violin), Patrick Kiernan (violin), and Ralph de Souza (viola).

They will be performing Schubert’s Quartet in G, D887.

As before, artists will give their services for no fee, but there will be a retiring cash collection in aid of a charity of their choosing.

The charity to be supported by Tim’s quartet is The Alsama Project, which provides support for teenage refugees in Lebanon.

The following month, on May 12, Friends Music will be joined by Braimah Kanneh-Mason (violin), Shakira Segalia-Humbert (cello) and Sophia Rahmen (piano) for a programme which includes Beethoven’s Piano Trio ‘The Ghost’.  

Meanwhile, Welwyn Garden Concert Club's next concert will feature the Atéa Wind Quintet, who will be performing at St Francis Church on Saturday, April 20.