Toad Lane Concerts receives Queen's Award for Voluntary Service

Dr Joe Dawson, Series Director of Toad Lane Concerts

Rochdale’s weekly music at lunchtime concerts, Toad Lane Concerts has been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.

Since 2001, 950 weekly concerts have provided excellent classical music from local talent, such as young soloists and adult choirs, to professionals of the highest calibre, including international postgraduate music students.

Lunchtime refreshments are available before the concerts themselves, which celebrate the superb acoustics of the Grade I-listed St Mary’s in the Baum Church, Rochdale.

TLC Series Director, Dr Joe Dawson said: “It is both gratifying and humbling that the concert series has been recognised by this award. It acknowledges nearly twenty years of consistently hard work and dedication of volunteers since taking over from the local authority. This enables audiences to appreciate excellent performers in this remarkable building.”

Toad Lane Concerts is one of 230 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year. The number of nominations remains high year on year, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them. 

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Recipients are announced each year on 2 June, the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.