The flute group was first formed in January 1997 by Hilary Gould (now Williams) and Jane Groves LWCMD. Jane is a professional musician and a local flute teacher in the Cardiff area. Hilary, and several of Jane’s other adult pupils, wanted the opportunity to meet and practice with other like-minded flute players, to offset the “isolation” often experienced by the lone flautist.

Our first meeting was subsequently held in the music room of Jane’s house on January 11th 1997 and under her leadership and encouragement everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable morning. The group went from strength to strength and regular meetings were held each month, usually in Jane’s music room, with approx. twelve to fourteen members attending.

March 1997 saw the appointment of our first secretary Mr. Paul Elliott, and we became known as the Cardiff Flute Group. In order to put ourselves on the musical map the first Group photograph was taken in August 1997 – subsequently sent to PAN magazine, together with a short article - and published in the March 1998 edition.

In December 1997 we moved to a new venue at St. Ederyn’s Church, Cardiff Gate and felt confident enough to give our first concert at the church on February 22nd 1998 after the morning service. As nerves took over we inevitably suffered a few mishaps but our listeners were very sympathetic and appreciative of our first effort in public!!

The year 2001 saw the election of our first official Committee and the drawing up of our Constitution. After successive amendments, this was finally put to the vote in the A.G.M of March 22nd 2002 and the group became officially known as CARDIFF AMATEUR FLUTE ENSEMBLE (C.A.F.E.)

With the Constitution in place it was now possible to consider approaching the Arts Council of Wales for a grant towards the purchase of a bass flute. The application was successful and the flute was purchased in August 2004.

In 2005 we lost the services of our Musical Director/conductor Jane Groves. It was a considerable time before a new M.D. was found and the group owes a great deal to those who helped to keep us afloat through that difficult time. Fortunately, our present conductor, Elinor Buglas, joined us in 2007 and officially became our Musical Director at the March A.G.M. of that year.

CAFÉ has enjoyed several master classes in previous years from professional flautists such as Jane Groves, Catherine Handley and Elizabeth May.

In 2008 we welcomed Zoe Booth of “Flutes in the Barn” for a workshop day at our home venue. Zoe soon put us through our paces with warm - up exercises and sight reading of her arrangement of Gershwin’s Rialto Ripples.

A buffet lunch, provided by CAFÉ members, was then thoroughly enjoyed by all those present. After lunch, Zoe encouraged us through further pieces including her own arrangements of Moon River, Symondsbury Farewell, and the composition of Jenny Rees. “Deep in the Forest.”

Zoe had arranged a Welsh folk tune especially for CAFÉ entitled “The Ash Groove”. This proved to be a real challenge and we are still working to perfect it!!

In conclusion, a most inspirational day was had by all and CAFÉ hopes that Zoe will return to Cardiff again in 2009.

Dec. 2010 saw the departure of our Conductor and Musical Director, Elinor Buglas. She has now been replaced by one of our long standing experienced members, Kristina Morgan, who will start to get us back into shape on Wed. Jan 12th 2011.