The new season kicks off this month with a visit from the highly regarded duo of Irish flautist Aisling Agnew and Scottish guitarist Matthew McAllister, with a programme that will include music by Bach, Villa-Lobos and Piazzolla.

Subsequent monthly concerts will feature a varied collection of artists, starting in October with the Auer String Quartet. November will see the return of the popular Kungsbacka Trio and pianist Arta Arnicane will see out the year with a recital in December.

The Frith Piano Quartet (also scheduled to launch the new Osprey Music Society season in Boat of Garten on 11th September) will visit in January while February's concert shifts the focus to wind instruments with the Illuminati Wind Quintet.

The Phosphos Quartet and viola player Nils Mönkemeyer will tackle quintets by Mozart and Brahms in March, while the April recital will feature the winner of this year's Moray International Piano Competition, due to be held in Elgin in November. The closing concert in May will feature the Sax-Ecosse Saxophone Quartet.

An impressive line up by any standards, and not one that happens by accident. The society is run entirely by volunteers, who willingly give time and expertise to provide these concerts for the enjoyment of what has been a steadily growing audience. Paul Crowe, the society's secretary, acknowledged that they have had to sharpen up their organisational techniques.

"It used to be that we often didn't finalise our programme until shortly before it started," he recalled.

"But all that has changed. These artists need to know what they are doing well in advance, and we must have our programme booked, costed and arranged at least a year before it happens. I pretty much know the make-up of our 2009-10 season now, for example."

Inverness Chamber Music Society guests, the Kunsgbacka Piano Trio (left to right) Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano), Malin Broman (violin) and Jesper Svedberg (cello).

The committee — whose meetings Crowe describes as "less than formal" — have gained considerable experience, and are now better placed to know both the artists and their audience.

"Our audience feel very much at ease telling us what they like," he noted, "I was fairly confident that an ambitious concert we did a couple of years ago featuring Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet and the Schumann Piano Quintet would go down well. So it proved — it drew our biggest audience so far.

"Similarly, we have gotten to know many of our performers, who are inevitably accommodated in the homes of our committee members, other than me. They like coming back, possibly because they don't have to put up with me at breakfast! I think for that reason groups like the Kungsbacka Piano Trio and the Carducci String Quartet seem prepared to keep returning although they have possibly outgrown us in status."

Acquiring their Bosendorfer piano two years ago has made a big difference. At least one group refused point blank to use the old Bluthner piano formerly in the hall, but the new instrument has enabled them to offer solo piano recitals as well as groups incorporating piano.

Local business sponsorship and an on-going relationship with Eden Court have also been key factors in the society's development. If pulling all of this together is — in Crowe's words — "a bit of a juggling exercise", it is one that has been conspicuously successful so far.

* Agnew & McAllister play at the Town House on 17th September.

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