Rosalind Ellicott

Rosalind Frances Ellicott (November 14, 1857 – April 5, 1924) was an English composer, considered one of the leading female composers of her generation. Her father had no interest in music and it was predominantly her mother, an amateur singer who had been involved with the founding both of London’s Handel Society (1882–1939) and of the Gloucester Philharmonic Society, who encouraged young Rosalind’s talent. At age six “she exhibited an extraordinary facility in music, singing, and harmonising correctly by ear”. She took lessons from Samuel Sebastian Wesley, the cathedral organist, from age 12, tried writing songs at 13 and then a sonata at 16. From 1874 to 1876, she studied piano with Frederick Westlake at the Royal Academy of Music. While at the Academy she discovered her voice and took soprano solo parts in oratorios and cantatas and was a frequent soloist at the Three Choirs Festival. She also studied composition for seven years from 1885 under Thomas Wingham of the Brompton Oratory. She was a member of the International Society of Musicians and the National Society of Professional Musicians, as well as an ARAM. But despite her relative success in the last two decades of the ce