DAME ELIZABETH MACONCHY (1907-1994) the prolific Anglo-Irish composer. Born in England but moving back to Dublin with her family as a child, she found herself in an Ireland that was on the one hand gearing up for revolution and on the other, absolutely awash with music. Study followed at the Royal College with Vaughan Williams, then a scholarship to Prague where she had her first premiere. Bartók is already an influence. And then, returning to London in the middle of the depression where opportunities for young avant-garde females were not exactly abundant, she formed an influential group and later held important positions that included first woman Chair of the UK Composers Guild. She married, she had two daughters, one of whom is the composer Nicola LeFanu. And through all this time she was composing, prolifically, winning prizes from time to time and celebrated by the cognoscenti but more or less ignored by everyone else. Until at last, late in life, she was awarded a CBE and made a Dame not long before she died
Presented by composer Joan Tower for International Women’s Month in March, written and produced by Charlotte Wilson for WMHT
