Charles Avison

Charles Avison (; 16 February 1709 (baptised)9 or 10 May 1770) was an English composer during the Baroque and Classical periods. He was a church organist at St John The Baptist Church at St John the Baptist Church, in Newcastle. According to The New Grove Dictionary, he was also born in this city. while others claim that he was the seventh of ten children. Regardless, Avison was born into a family with a high rate of infant mortality, as many of his siblings died at a young age. His education may have included an apprenticeship with a local merchant named Ralph Jenison, a patron of the arts, and later a Member of Parliament, as well as further study of music. The local composer William Shield, who was born south of the River Tyne in Swalwell, County Durham, studied under Avison. Avison was married to Catherine Reynolds on 15 January 1737. The couple had nine children, of whom only three – Jane, Edward, and Charles – survived to adulthood. Edward succeeded his father as both the director of the Newcastle Musical Society and the St Nicholas’s organist after his father’s death. Charles was also an organist and composer. Compositions Description Avison’s best-known compositions are his