Susan Spain-Dunk

Susan Spain-Dunk FRAM (22 February 1880 Folkestone, England – 1 January 1962 London) was an English composer, conductor and violinist/violist. Life and career Susan was the third of four children (Ethel K Dunk b. 1876; John De Lanoy Dunk b. 1878; Susan Spain Dunk b. 1880; William Major b. 1882). Their father was a master plumber and house builder. Her second name, Spain, was added as the Dunk family were related to the Spain family. She studied violin and composition at The Royal Academy of Music, London with Alfred Gibson, Stewart Macpherson and Richard Walthew and later taught composition and harmony there. For a time she played the viola in a private quartet of Walter Cobbett. She also played (violin or viola) in the Winifred Small Quartet and Cobbett made suggestions for “Anthology” programmes for the quartet. She conducted some of her own works at the British Women’s Symphony Orchestra. She also conducted her own works at The London Promenade Concerts (1924-1927) and at Bournemouth, Folkestone, Eastbourne and Torquay. Susan Spain-Dunk also conducted work by other women composers, including Edith Swepstone’s tone poem, A Vision. and two grandchildren. In the mid-1930s she was l