Concerts for medical charities have been given by musicians working in the health professions in Oxford since 1978. They started in a modest way with a recital in the old Radcliffe Infirmary in memory of a young nurse who had died of melanoma. The proceeds helped launch the Jill Broadis Memorial Fund for Cancer Research and annual concerts for the charity continued into the 1990s.

The ensuing years saw changes in scale but not in the underlying principles, namely that the concerts should raise money for medical charities and that those taking part, as well as those who listen, should enjoy themselves. With the opening of the John Radcliffe Hospital, the venue moved up the hill to the Tingewick Hall and gradually the size of the audience increased to fill the 300 seats available. The number of musicians increased to a full symphony orchestra and was named the Radcliffe Orchestra.

Dr Donald Lane took up the conductor’s baton and he saw the concerts through their 25th anniversary. In 2004, he handed the running of the orchestra over to a committee which is now chaired by Prof John Stradling from the Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine. The committee invites guest conductors and at present there are three who take turns to perform with the orchestra.

On November 12, at 7.45pm in the Tingewick Hall, the orchestra will be performing works by Mozart and Beethoven in aid of Bridewell Organic Gardens, a land-based mental health charity based in West Oxfordshire. The conductor will be Johnny Timms and soloist Gary Howarth will play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 24.

Ticket are £10 (£8 concessions), available from the Cairns Library on the JR site, customer service desk (second floor), and on the door. Tickets include cheese and wine after the performance.