Beatrice Harrison

Beatrice Harrison (born December 9, 1892 in Roorkee / India , † March 10, 1965 in Smallfield ) was an English cellist.

Beatrice Harrison

Harrison came to England as a child. From 1903 she studied at the Royal College of Music in London with William Whitehouse . In 1907 she first appeared as a soloist under the baton of Henry Wood . In Berlin she studied with Hugo Becker at the Hochschule für Musik and won the Mendelssohn Prize . In 1910 she began her first European tour, in 1913 and 1932 she performed in the USA . Frederick Delius wrote his double concerto for her and her sister May . She also played the world premiere of his cello sonata in 1919 and the British world premiere of his cello concerto under Eugene Goossens . She also gave the English premiere of Maurice Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello, of Zoltán Kodály's Solo Sonata for Cello and the first radio performance of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto under the direction of the composer.

The Harrison siblings were among the leading figures on the English music scene in the first half of the 20th century: Beatrice's sisters May and Margaret were violinists, Monica singers.