An orchestra made up entirely of doctors will open the annual Claygate Music Festival next week.

The European Doctors’ Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, whose membership is retricted to practicing medical professionals, will play a selection of classical works as part of the Claygate Music Festival, due to run from the 13^th to the 28^th of March, all within three miles of Kingston.

“It’s a smaller group than usual”, said Orchestra president Bob McFarland (pictured), “There will be around 30 of us in Claygate. The difficulty lies in getting so many working professionals together, we have psychiatrists, surgeons, consultants... all kinds of specialities. Sometimes just to get us all together needs a long weekend."

McFarland himself is both a consultant surgeon at St.George’s hospital and a double bass player, he is also a resident of Claygate.

In the past few years the Orchestra have perfomed in cities such as Bucharest, Verona and Berlin, the Claygate concert being an added date to their usual schedule of two concerts per year

Festival organiser Rukshana Master, who founded the event to “enhance the village and village life”, is extremely happy that the doctors will be performing. She said:“They fly in from France, Hungary, Poland, and all of the money they raise they give to charity. We have a number of international acts and it’s a real treat to have them here.”

Local resident and actress Elizabeth Power, 63, is also eagerly awaiting the event. She said:“The debt we owe Rukshana is immeasurable, she does it all on her own. It was all her idea, and now we’ve got these doctors performing, it’s amazing.”

The concert, which will feature the works of Strauss, Mozart and Mendelssohn, takes place at 8pm on Saturday 13 March in the Holy Trinity Church, Church Road, Claygate.