Olive Zorian
Olive Zorian | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | Manchester, England | 16 March 1916
Died | 17 May 1965 London, England | (aged 49)
Genres | Classical |
Instrument(s) | Violin |
Formerly of | Zorian Quartet |
Olive Nevart Zorian (16 March 1916 in
She was the youngest daughter of Samuel Hovannes Zorian and Ada Mary Zorian. Samuel was an Armenian hosiery manufacturer and musician from Diyarbakir, Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, who had been imprisoned by the Turkish authorities in the 1890s as a political activist, and who thereafter relocated to Manchester, England.[1][2] The family settled in Manchester and were prominent cotton merchant businessmen. Ada (née Rushton) came from Birmingham.
Early life and education
In the 1920s Samuel and Ada with their children moved to Lytham St Annes. Ada was a Quaker, and they opened a vegetarian guest house there.
From 1932, Olive studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music under Arthur Catterall, funded first by a scholarship from the College and later by one from Lancashire County Council of £36 a year.[3] When only 16 years old, she was invited by Sir Henry Wood to play at the Promenade season at the Queens Hall, Manchester. She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music.[4] In 1937, she was awarded as student prize a violin bow made by J & A Beare,[5] the first of many awards and prizes. Also in 1937, a string quartet which consisted of her (violin I), Marjorie Lavers (violin II), Susan Davies (viola) and Vivian Joseph (cello) won the Sir Edward Cooper Prize for ensemble playing.[6]
Zorian then studied violin with Georges Enescu in Paris and with Szymon Goldberg in Amsterdam.[7]
Career
In 1938, she was leader (concertmaster) of an orchestra assembled by Rudolph Dolmetsch.[8]
She performed five times as soloist at
In 1942, she founded the
When the re-formed Zorian String Quartet diminished its activity, she led the English Opera Group Orchestra 1952–57, including performances at the Aldeburgh Festival. She was a distinguished violinist in the Julian Bream Consort,[13] which was responsible for a revival of Elizabethan music. She made recordings with both those groups as well as with the Zorian Quartet. As a soloist she gave numerous recitals, and played concertos with leading British orchestras. In 1961, she was leader of the Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra at the Hoffnung Astronautical Music Festival.[14]
In 1985, her former husband
Personal life
In 1948, she married broadcaster and classical music critic John Amis (1922–2013). The marriage was dissolved in 1955,[13] the same year in which her father died.
Death and legacy
Olive Zorian died of cancer in hospital in London in 1965.[1] Her name is inscribed in the Book of Remembrance in the Musicians' Chapel at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, London.[15]
For many years Zorian played on a 1721
Notes
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-903656-08-2.
- ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7190-0435-3. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
- ^ a b "BBC Home Service". BBC. 27 July 1942. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
- ^ "Royal Academy of Music student recipients of violin bows from J&A Beare's" (PDF). Royal Academy of Music. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
- JSTOR 923376.
- ^ Townend, Peter; Simmons, David (1962). Who's Who in Music (Fourth ed.). London: Burke's Peerage Ltd. p. 237.
- ^ "Rudolph Dolmetsch (1906–1942)". Dolmetsch Online. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
- ^ "BBC Proms – Performances: Olive Zorian". BBC. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
- ^ "Prom 49". BBC. 14 August 1943. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-19-538253-2. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ^ "Reid Chamber Concert, Thursday, November 30, 1944". Reid Concerts, University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84383-382-6.
- ^ Hoffnung – The Hoffnung Astronautical Music Festival 1961 at Discogs; credited as "Oliver Zorian"
- ^ "Olive Nevart Zorian: 1965, Violinist". musicianschapel.org.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
- ^ "Lot 380:BRITTEN BENJAMIN: (1913–1976) English Composer. A printed 4to concert programme for a Memorial Concert for Olive Zorian at Friends House, London, 26th November 1966". Retrieved 17 March 2016.
External links
- Olive Zorian at AllMusic
- Olive Zorian discography at Discogs