Eda Kersey was a British violinist who was renowned for her brilliant playing. She premiered a number of important works but her career was cut short by her early death.

Eda Kersey was born in Goodmayes

Goodmayes

Goodmayes is a district of Ilford in north-east London, England. It is a suburban development in the London Borough of Redbridge and forms part of the Ilford post town, situated approximately two miles to the east of Ilford town centre....

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 in 1904. She studied the violin from the age of six, winning an honours certificate from the Trinity College of Music

Trinity College of Music

Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...

 when only eight. She studied with Edgar Mouncher, a pupil of Otakar Ševčík

Otakar Ševcík

Otakar Ševčík was a Czech violinist and influential teacher. He was known as a soloist and an ensemble player, including his occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe.-Biography:...

; under him, she prepared the first movement from Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish violinist and composer.-Biography:Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka, had converted to Catholicism. His talent for playing the violin was recognized early, and in 1843 he entered the Paris...

's Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor

Violin Concerto No. 2 (Wieniawski)

Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22, by the Polish violin virtuoso, Henryk Wieniawski, may have been started in 1856, but the first performance did not take place until November 27, 1862, when he played it in St. Petersburg with Anton Rubinstein conducting. It was published in 1870, inscribed...

, which she played in Southampton

Southampton

Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

 when only ten. At 13, she commenced studies with Margaret Holloway, a pupil of Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, conductor and composer.-Early life and career:...

. She gave her first London recital at age 16 at the Aeolian Hall

Aeolian Hall

Aeolian Hall may refer to:*Aeolian Hall , a concert hall near Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City*Aeolian Hall , England*Aeolian Hall , a historic music venue in London, Ontario...

. The BBC engaged her to play the Mendelssohn

Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn)

Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 is his last large orchestral work. It forms an important part of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time...

, Beethoven

Violin Concerto (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, was written in 1806.The work was premiered on 23 December 1806 in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Beethoven wrote the concerto for his colleague Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day, who had earlier given him helpful advice on...

 and Elgar concertos

Violin Concerto (Elgar)

Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, is one of his longest orchestral compositions, and the last of his works to gain immediate popular success....

 and she gave the first broadcast of Dohnányi

Erno Dohnányi

Ernő Dohnányi was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist. He used the German form of his name Ernst von Dohnányi for most of his published compositions....

's Violin Concerto No. 1. She also performed the Beethoven concerto at the 1930 Proms

The Proms

The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...

 under Sir Henry J Wood

Henry Wood (conductor)

Sir Henry Joseph Wood, CH was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences...

. Later Proms performances included the Brahms

Violin Concerto (Brahms)

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 is a violin concerto in three movements composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim...

 and Bach A minor

Violin Concerto in A minor (Bach)

The Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041, was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1748.-Structure and analysis:The piece has three movements:#Allegro moderato#Andante — with an ostinato style theme#Allegro assai...

 concertos.

In 1930 she gave the first two performances of Stanley Wilson's Violin Concerto.

In 1931 she formed a piano trio with Gerald Moore

Gerald Moore

Gerald Moore CBE was an English pianist best known for his career as one of the most in-demand accompanists of his day, accompanying many of the world's most famous musicians...

 and Cedric Sharp, while continuing her solo career. She also played in a trio with Howard Ferguson

Howard Ferguson (composer)

Howard Ferguson was a British composer and musicologist. He composed instrumental, chamber, orchestral and choral works. While his music is not widely-known today, his Piano Sonata in F Minor and his Five Bagatelles for piano are still performed...

 and Helen Just for some time.

She became friendly with Albert Sammons

Albert Sammons

Albert Edward Sammons CBE was an English violinist, composer and later violin teacher. Almost self-taught on the violin, he had a wide repertoire as both chamber musician and soloist, although his reputation rests mainly on his association with British composers, especially Elgar...

, who encouraged her to overcome her dislike of the Elgar concerto and include it in her repertoire. She preferred works such as the violin sonatas of John Ireland

John Ireland (composer)

John Nicholson Ireland was an English composer.- Life :John Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth...

, which she played with Kathleen Long

Kathleen Long

Kathleen Long CBE was a British pianist and teacher. She was an awarded soloist, but was also a much appreciated chamber music player and recitalist. Her tours included Europe, North America and South Africa....

. Her repertoire also included the Violin Concerto by Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...

.

Sher premiered Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Leslie Benjamin was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of Jamaican Rhumba, composed in 1938.-Biography:...

's Romantic Fantasy on 24 March 1938, with violist Bernard Shore, at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert conducted by the composer.

During World War II, she gave many performances for CEMA

Arts Council of Great Britain

The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. The Arts Council of Great Britain was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England , the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales...

. She and Kathleen Long were regular artists at the National Gallery Lunchtime Concerts.

Eda Kersey also premiered E.J. Moeran

Ernest John Moeran

Ernest John Moeran was an English composer who had strong associations with Ireland .-Early life:...

's Violin Sonata, and gave the UK premiere of Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber

Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...

's Violin Concerto

Violin concerto (Barber)

Samuel Barber completed his Violin Concerto, Op. 14, in 1939. It is a work in three movements, lasting about 22 minutes.-History:In 1939 Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Fels commissioned Barber to write a violin concerto for Fels' ward, Iso Briselli, a graduate from the Curtis Institute...

 at a 1943 Proms concert. In 1938, Arnold Bax

Arnold Bax

Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of romanticism and impressionism, often with influences from Irish literature and landscape. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...

 had written his Violin Concerto for Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...

, but Heifetz did not find it sufficiently challenging and never played it, so Bax put it aside. The work was given its premiere on 22 November 1943 by Eda Kersey and the BBC Symphony Orchestra

BBC Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...

 under Sir Henry Wood, after Arthur Bliss

Arthur Bliss

‎Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...

, then the BBC's Director of Music, commissioned Bax to write a new work. She also recorded the concerto in February 1944, under Sir Adrian Boult

Adrian Boult

Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...

.

She died of stomach cancer on 13 July 1944, aged only 40. Elsie Suddaby

Elsie Suddaby

Elsie Suddaby was a leading British lyric soprano of the years between World War I and World War II. She was born in Leeds.A pupil of Sir Edward Bairstow, she was known as ‘The Lass With The Delicate Air’ .She was principal soprano in the bicentennial St Matthew Passion Elsie Suddaby (1893 -...

 sang at her memorial service.

Eda Kersey's recordings are few: they include the Bax Concerto and pieces by Brahms, Fritz Kreisler

Fritz Kreisler

Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...

 and Jenő Hubay

Jeno Hubay

Eugen Huber , better known by his Hungarian name Jenő Hubay , was a Hungarian violinist, composer and music teacher.-Early life:Eugen Huber was born into a German family of musicians in Pest, Hungary...

. Preparations to record some of the core concerto repertoire were well advanced when she died.

The Eda Kersey Memorial Exhibition was created in 1947 at the Royal Academy of Music

Royal Academy of Music

The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...

.