It all started with a meeting early in April 1957 at The Murray school. This meeting attracted "10 ladies and 11 gentlemen" and a committee was formed with a view to establishing a light opera club in East Kilbride.
The newly formed club set out to recruit members and the ensuing auditions provided "7 sopranos, 3 contraltos, 4 tenors, 2 baritones, 1 boy soprano and 1 man "with dramatic experience"! The first venture of the club was a revue - "September Song" but our first fully fledged light opera was the well tried favourite "Desert Song".
In the 21 years of our existence we have ranged from Golden Oldies such as "New Moon", "Merry Widow" and "Rose Marie" to more modern shows such as"My Fair Lady", "The Most Happy Fella", and "Kiss Me Kate". In the process we have established ourselves as one of the foremost light opera clubs in the West of Scotland.
From our first show, we have set ourselves a very high standard to maintain, for example, in using a professional orchestra throughout, a decision we have never had cause to regret. Further evidence of our operation is the fact that for many years now we have supplied principals to several of the Glasgow clubs. During our 21 years we have enjoyed the company of more than 300 playing members and our total audience over the period has been well in excess of 50,000.
We are now playing our first shows in East Kilbride's Village Theatre - a vast improvement in comfort and amenities for our audiences and with greatly advanced staging facilities from our previous home - Duncanrig School. We look forward to the next 21 years and trust that you our audiences will remain as loyal and appreciative of our efforts in the future as you have always been in the past. (1978)
