{{Short description|British violinist (1908–2000)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Use British English|date=December 2012}}
{{Infobox musical artist|birth_date=9 August 1908|birth_place=[[Whitwick]], Leicestershire, UK|death_date=31 December 2000|genre=[[Classical music|classical]]|instrument=[[violin]]}}
'''Anne Macnaghten''', [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (9 August 1908 – 31 December 2000) was a British [[Classical music|classical]] violinist and [[pedagogue]].<ref name="g">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jan/23/guardianobituaries |title=Obituary:Anne Macnaghten |author=Catherine Nelson |date=23 January 2001 |work=The Guardian|accessdate=30 January 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1322323/Anne-Macnaghten.html |title=Anne Macnaghten |date=13 February 2001 |work=The Telegraph |accessdate=30 January 2012 }}</ref>
==Education== Anne was the youngest daughter of high court judge [[Malcolm Macnaghten|Sir Malcolm Macnaghten]]. She was born in [[Whitwick]], Leicestershire,<ref name=who>''Who's Who in Music'', Fifth Edition (1969), p. 201</ref> and grew up in [[Northern Ireland]] and [[Kensington]], London. She began her violin studies at the age of six with [[Hungary|Hungarian]] soloist [[Jelly d'Arányi]]. Macnaghten later stated in an interview with ''[[The Strad]]'' that d'Arányi "wasn't really a very good teacher".<ref name=g/> At the age of seventeen she travelled to [[Germany]] to study at Leipzig Conservatory (now [[University of Music and Theatre Leipzig]]) with German pedagogue [[Walther Davisson]], who later became the director of the conservatory. She later returned to London for further study with [[André Mangeot|Andre Mangeot]].<ref name=t/>
==Macnaghten Concerts and String Quartet== In 1931 she co-founded the ''Macnaghten Concerts'' together with composer [[Elisabeth Lutyens]] and conductor [[Iris Lemare]], which aimed to promote [[contemporary classical music|contemporary classical]] composers. The concert series was based at the [[Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate]] and originally ran from 1931 to 1937.
In the same year Macnaghten founded the (then all-female) ''Macnaghten String Quartet'', which played in many of the series' concerts. The quartet consisted of Macnaghtan, Joan Wordsell, Violet Brough and Joan Bonner. By 1932 the personnel had changed to Macnaghten, Elise Deprez, [[Beryl Scawen Blunt]] and Mary Goodchild.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Sophie |title='Putting the BBC and T. Beecham to Shame': The Macnaghten—Lemare Concerts, 1931-7 |journal=Journal of the Royal Musical Association |date=2013 |volume=138 |issue=2 |page=388|doi=10.1080/02690403.2013.830488 |s2cid=192210401 }}</ref> The quartet premièred works of several well-known composers as part of the concert series, including ''Sinfonietta, Op. 1'' by [[Benjamin Britten]] in 1933, [[Michael Tippett|Tippet]]'s ''String Quartet No. 1'' in 1935, the String Quartet No 3 by [[Mary Lucas]]<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/26990ee3aa6e414fbd1720544a465cfe?page=36 ''Radio Times'', Issue 644, 2 February 1936, p 35-6]</ref> and works by [[Gerald Finzi]], [[Elizabeth Maconchy]], and [[Alan Rawsthorne]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/rawsth/macnaght.htm |title=Alan Rawsthorne and the Macnaghten Concerts |publisher=Musicweb-international.com |accessdate=2012-07-15}}</ref>
After the war the Quartet re-formed, with Arnold Ashby as cellist. He became her second husband in 1947. The ensemble became involved in music education activities, holding a series of demonstration concerts in schools, initially in Barking (1945-7), then in Ealing (1948-53), Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.<ref name=who/> The ''Macnaghten String Quartet'' are still an active quartet and regularly coach [[chamber music]] at [[Benslow Music Trust]].<ref name=g/>
==Later career== In 1952, with the help of composer [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]] (a strong supporter of the original concert series) and funding from the Arts Council of Great Britain (now [[Arts Council England]]), Macnaghten was able to revive the concert series, which was renamed the ''New Macnaghten Concerts'' and ran for over forty years, the last concert given in 1994. The ''New Macnaghten Concerts'' saw the première of works by British composers such as [[Harrison Birtwhistle]] and [[Richard Rodney Bennett]].
The recital series saw performances by some of the most internationally renowned musicians of the era, including [[John Williams (guitarist)|John Williams]], [[Cecil Aronowitz]], [[Peter Pears]], [[Steve Reich]], [[Michael Nyman]], [[Derek Simpson (cellist)|Derek Simpson]], [[Thea King]] and many others.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/4931|title=Macnaghten Concerts (1963–75)|publisher=[[Arts and Humanities Research Council]]|accessdate=30 January 2012 }}</ref>
Macnaghten received a Gold Medal from the [[Worshipful Company of Musicians]] in 1962, and in 1987 was appointed a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] in recognition of her work in education.
==Personal life== Her first husband was James Ernest Skilbeck, an outspoken communist who fought in the [[Spanish Civil War]] against Franco.<ref name=t>'Anne MacNaghten', in ''The Times'', 8 January 2001, p. 19</ref> She married her second husband, cellist Arnold Ashby in 1947: he died in 1994. There was a son from her first marriage (John, born 1942) and a daughter from her second (Catherine, born 1947).<ref name=g/> Their address in the 1960s was Meadhall, Little Walden in [[Saffron Walden]]. By the late 1960s they had moved to 23 Wymondley Road, [[Hitchin]].<ref name=who/> From the late 1970s onwards, Anne Macnaghten was teaching violin in Hertfordshire, stopping only as a result of a fall at the age of ninety. She died two years later.
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Macnaghten, Anne}} [[Category:Clan Macnaghten|Anne]] [[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:1908 births]] [[Category:2000 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century British classical violinists]] [[Category:British women classical violinists]] [[Category:20th-century British women musicians]] [[Category:Musicians from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea]] [[Category:People from Kensington]]