Beyond the confines of legal practice, Jeremy Fleming profiles lawyers with a musical passion

Beyond glancing at the paintings on the walls, it is tempting to think that City lawyers do not have the time to indulge in the arts, and that their vocal talents stretch no further than the dictaphone.

But Tim Crosley, the conductor of a City-based orchestra and choir largely comprised of lawyers, says there are many skilled musicians working in the City for whom music was nearly another career.

The senior associate in the tax department of City firm Clyde & Co adds: 'There are many musicians working behind desks in the City for whom the long and unpredictable hours have subsequently led them to quit playing.'

EC4 Music consists of a 100-strong choir and 60-strong orchestra of whom around a third are lawyers.

It was set up in 1995 and originally produced one concert each year - staged at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street.

This year's concert will take place on 16 and 17 June, but the group has broadened its approach and now often does more than one concert annually.

This year, it will be appearing at London's 'Genius of the Violin' festival, sponsored by BBC Radio 3 and the Royal Academy of Music.

At the festival - on 30 March at Duke's Hall (the Royal Academy of Music's concert hall) - EC4 Music will play Sibelius's 'Finlandia', Vaughan Williams' 'The Lark Ascending', Sarasate's 'Carmen Fantasy' and Tchaikovsky's violin concerto.

Although Mr Crosley himself is the orchestra's conductor, he is at ease at the piano - having given public performances at London's South Bank Centre as a teenager.

The choir, meanwhile, has about eight rehearsals before the June concert in London churches on Holborn Viaduct - St Andrew's and St Sepulchre's - and is open to all lawyers.

However, EC4 is clearly more interested in lawyers who can actually sing rather than those who labour under that frequent human delusion of thinking that they can - when in fact they sound like a car starting.

'It's usually pretty obvious if someone really can't sing,' says Mr Crosley ominously.

At last year's concert, the choir belted out a royal selection to celebrate the Queen's coronation, including 'Zadok the Priest' by Handel and Walton's 'Coronation Te Deum'.

This year's programme is yet to be confirmed, but is likely to include Dvorak's cello concerto and a large-scale choral piece for the choir.

Mr Crosley says the attitude of City firms to music 'is very different depending on where you are'.

He explains: 'Generally, they are very supportive so long as it doesn't get in the way of work.'

He says Clyde & Co has a 'very positive attitude', adding: 'Apart from anything else, it is good discipline, working together in a team, using time productively, getting the best out of other members of the choir and orchestra.

Most of our audiences come from our workplaces, and it is also a platform for entertaining clients.'

City firms Lovells and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have provided corporate sponsorship to EC4.

But it is by no means the only avenue for lawyers looking to let off musical steam.

Lawyers Music, which consists of the London Lawyers Symphony Orchestra and London Lawyers Chorus, is another musical society for lawyers and their friends.

It holds about five public concerts each year in churches in Piccadilly, Kensington and Knightsbridge, in the church of St Lawrence Jewry in the City, and at other central London locations.

This season, there are two concerts still to come: on 20 March (at St James's Piccadilly) - it will stage Canteloube's 'Songs of the Auvergne' and Shostakovitch's tenth symphony, then on 22 May (at St James's, Sussex Gardens) it will play Britten's 'Four Sea Interludes' and Elgar's 'Music Makers'.

Rehearsals take place weekly, from the first week of September, in the hall of the Welsh Baptist Church, situated in Eastcastle Street, close to Oxford Circus.

Orchestra rehearsals take place on Tuesday from 7pm to 9.30pm and choir rehearsals are on Thursday from 7pm to 9pm.

The ethos of the society is to enjoy participating in making music with others, and for this reason no audition is normally required for either the orchestra or the choir.

Members of Lawyers Music give a friendly welcome to newcomers and all are encouraged to join in the annual weekend away to make music together, as well as at occasional non-residential weekend workshops in London.

So if you are sat at your desk dreaming of your lost musical career - get up and join a choir or an orchestra.

Unless of course you are tone deaf - in which case please stay exactly where you are.

- For more information about EC4 Music - whether it relates to the choir or orchestra - e-mail Tim Crosley at tim.crosley@clyde.co.uk.

For Lawyers Music visit www.lawyers music.org.uk or call Melanie Wiseman (orchestra) on 020 7344 9214 (day) or 020 8881 8205 (evenings), or call Margaret Kelly (choir) on 020 8994 1998.