Music in the key of love

Single? In want of company, if not a bit more? The quicksand of the office romance being no go - even assuming you've an office with other people in it at all - what does the discerning singleton do who WLTM a potential LTR with GSOH?

As those initials suggest, there's always the lonely hearts' columns, although phoning and listening to the messages can be a dispiriting and, at 50p a minute, expensive business. When the man whose ad proclaims "Wide musical tastes" informs you on the audio message that what he meant was "the Levellers, Led Zeppelin and Frank Zappa" and the one who wrote "I write opera, woo women with sensuous trombone" sounds like Julian Clary and is looking for a buxom blonde who likes leather and ironing, it's time to think again.

All introduction agencies include a profile of cultural interests in assessing clients. However, these can be pretty vague. An interest in the theatre could mean The Mousetrap or Waiting For Godot; film might mean Bertolucci or The Spy Who Shagged Me. The embarrassment factor in the search for romance, is high - at least for me. Work provides a carapace of bravery and as a journalist I can beard the fiercest of lions in the darkest of dens. But one-to-one with a potential LTR, with nothing to talk about except the litany of past failures (admit to being a writer and you're finished) and I'm a quivering wreck.

However, one introduction agency offers a civilised way through the getting-to-know-you obstacle course. The idea for Classical Partners came to Michael Lamb and Diane Walters at an outdoor concert in France three years ago. "It was a lovely evening," Michael explains, "and there were all these people on their own, not talking to each other, and it just seemed such a waste."

My own experience is that I just don't go to concerts on my own. Where's the pleasure if there's no one to share it with? Then there's the misery of the interval with everyone else chatting and laughing and you're re-reading the programme for the nth time, along with all the other sad no-hopers. So it was that I found myself last Sunday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London for a fortepiano recital by Andreas Staier. It wasn't hard to spot the Classical Partners contingent. While everyone else in the foyer was dressed for a baking afternoon, this lot wouldn't have been out of place at a wedding and all the women had newly washed hair. Being similarly outfitted (black dress, nothing too outre) I was soon spotted by Diane and immediately introduced to "old hand" Noel.

Noel looked 50 but later admitted to 64. That's why the events, as the concerts are called, are so important: age, he said with practiced charm, is rarely chronological. "Now, admit it Penelope, if you had been sent my profile through the post, you'd have thought `64 and past it' and not given me a second look." Noel - a sometime professional violinist - admits to "several moderate successes" over the two years he's been a member. What did he mean exactly? "You will just have to speculate on my precise meaning," he said, with the discretion of the gentleman he undoubtedly is.

Classical Partners currently has 1100 people on their books, ranging from those like me (keen but musically illiterate) to professional musicians. The age range - if Sunday is anything to go by - is equally wide. Membership costs £345 a year.

At present Classical Partners is solely UK-based, with offices in London and Manchester. "Our strength is that I know all the members," Diane explains, "both through personal interviews and through the events." Similar musical tastes are important, however, and are elicited from the questionnaire members complete when they join providing a detailed breakdown of preferred composers and periods. (They even have jazz events.) "We wouldn't match a Mahler-lover with someone with a passion for Gilbert and Sullivan," she says.

Those in their 30s can expect to get a match every two weeks, but if you're a women in your late 40s or 50s it can be more difficult, so Classical Partners offer a deal where for the price of a half-yearly membership you are guaranteed six matches, however long these take to come through.

Meanwhile there are always the events - about three a month - which are signed up for separately. These include "soirees", usually featuring young, up-and-coming musicians, held in private houses. According to Noel, this is the best place for meeting people, much better, he says than the one-to-ones. Next weekend there's a gala evening with the Royal Opera in Windsor Castle. In October there's a weekend in Paris.

A meal - either before or after - is always part of the evening's festivities. Last Sunday there were about 40 of us, and by the time we sat down to eat we were already a cohesive, if rather noisy, group. Everyone I met was interesting, from the 27-year old Russian piano teacher to the pathologist from Oxford with whom I exchanged telephone numbers. Before anyone gets too excited I should point out, that she's a she. But, hey, you can't have everything.

Classical Partners: 0044-1707 601313