thumb|Holmes, 1970s|alt=Clean-shaven white man with full head of light-coloured hair, playing a violin '''Ralph Holmes''' (1 April 1937 – 4 September 1984) was an English classical violinist. Not temperamentally inclined to displays of virtuosity, he frequently appeared as a conductor-soloist and chamber musician. As a concerto soloist, in addition to more familiar works he played many lesser-known ones, including concertos by Samuel Barber, Richard Rodney Bennett, Benjamin Britten, Frederick Delius and Arnold Schoenberg. For the last twenty years of his life he was professor of violin at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music in London.
==Early years== Ralph Holmes was born in Penge in South London on 1 April 1937.<ref name=grove>Nelson, S. M. and Margaret Campbell. [https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13245 "Holmes, Ralph"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001 {{subscription}}</ref> He studied the violin with David Martin at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London and subsequently in Paris with George Enescu (who had taught Yehudi Menuhin) and in New York with Ivan Galamian (teacher of Kyung Wha Chung, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman).<ref name=times>"Obituary: Mr Ralph Holmes", ''The Times'', 6 September 1948, p. 14</ref><ref>Potter, Tully. [https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-90000381603 "Chung, Kyung-Wha"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001 {{subscription}}</ref>
At the age of thirteen Holmes made his concert début in January 1951, in an Ernest Read children's concert in London, as soloist in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.<ref name=dt>Kennedy, Michael. "Obituary: Ralph Holmes", ''The Daily Telegraph'', 7 September 1984, p. 16</ref> He subsequently won prizes at international competitions in Paris in 1957 and Bucharest in 1958.<ref name=dt/>
==Peak years== Holmes made his American début with Sir John Barbirolli and the Houston Symphony at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1966;<ref name=dt/> he played Ravel's ''Tzigane'' and Vaughan Williams's ''The Lark Ascending''.<ref>"Holmes' Bow", ''New York Daily News'', 27 March 1966, p. 940</ref>
Although Holmes became an experienced and skilled concerto soloist – he gave several hundred performances of the Beethoven Violin Concerto<ref>[https://www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/a-tribute-to-ralph-holmes "A Tribute to Ralph Holmes"], ''Gramophone'', May 2021</ref> – as ''The Times'' put it, "he lacked the forcefulnes of temperament to make a dominating impression in a world not short of major violin virtuosi".<ref name=times/> He diversified his musical activities and performed as soloist-conductor with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and the London Mozart Players and formed the Holmes Trio in 1972 with Anthony Goldstone (piano) and Moray Welsh (cello). According to ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', his performances with these players "were acclaimed for their technical mastery, warmth of tone and complete stylistic conviction".<ref name=grove/>
==Repertoire, recordings and RAM== ''The Times'' called Holmes "a notable champion of the lesser known areas of the 20th century repertory".<ref name=times/> He played concertos by Barber, Bennett, Brian, Britten, Delius and Schoenberg as well as more familiar twentieth-century concertos by composers such as Bartók, Berg, Elgar, Shostakovich and Walton.<ref name=grove/><ref name=times/><ref>MacDonald, Calum. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/946034 "Brian’s Violin Concerto"], ''Tempo'', no. 129, 1979, pp. 43–43 {{subscription}}</ref>
He made fewer commercial recordings than many of his compeers, but in the studio he set down the Delius sonatas with Eric Fenby; solo sonatas by Bartók and Prokofiev; Beethoven and Hummel sonatas with Richard Burnett; and the Delius Violin Concerto with the RPO under Vernon Handley.<ref name=grove/>
From 1964 until his death, Holmes was professor of violin at the RAM.<ref name=dt/> He died in Beckenham in South London on 4 September 1984 at the age of 47.<ref name=grove/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Ralph}} Category:1937 births Category:1984 deaths Category:20th-century British classical violinists Category:English classical violinists Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music