Janet Helen Rosemary Craxton (17 May 192918 July 1981) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range.
A ...
player and teacher. She was the youngest of the six children and the only daughter of the pianist and teacher
Harold Craxton
Thomas Harold Hunt Craxton (30 April 188530 March 1971) was an English pianist, teacher and composer.
Born in London, and growing up in Devizes, Craxton began studying piano with Tobias Matthay and Cuthbert Whitemore in 1907, and made a name for ...
. Her older brothers included the artist
John Craxton
John Leith Craxton RA, (3 October 1922 – 17 November 2009) was an English painter. He was sometimes called a neo-Romantic artist but he preferred to be known as a "kind of Arcadian".
Biography
Career
John was the son of musician Harold ...
. She married the composer
Alan Richardson in 1961.
Janet Craxton studied at the
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...
from 1945 to 1948 and at the
Paris Conservatoire
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
from 1948 to 1949. She was principal oboist of the
Hallé Orchestra from 1949 to 1952, the
London Mozart Players
London Mozart Players (LMP) are a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. LMP are the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom. Since 1989, the orchestra has been Resident Orchestra at Fairfield Halls, Croydon.
History
B ...
from 1952 to 1954, the
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...
from 1954 to 1963, the
London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London.
The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert in 1968—givi ...
from 1969 to 1981, and the orchestra of the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
from 1979 to 1981. She was appointed oboe
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
at the Royal Academy of Music in 1958.
She was much in demand as a
soloist, and gave
world premières of works by
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...
,
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer.
Biography
Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Char ...
,
Alan Rawsthorne
Alan Rawsthorne (2 May 1905 – 24 July 1971) was a British composer. He was born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is buried in Thaxted churchyard in Essex.
Early years
Alan Rawsthorne was born in Deardengate House, Haslingden, Lancashire, to Hu ...
,
Elisabeth Lutyens
Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE (9 July 190614 April 1983) was an English composer.
Early life and education
Elisabeth Lutyens was born in London on 9 July 1906. She was one of the five children of Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964), a me ...
,
Elizabeth Maconchy
Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy LeFanu (; 19 March 1907 – 11 November 1994) was an Irish-English composer. She is considered to be one of the finest composers Great Britain and Ireland have produced.
Biography
Elizabeth Violet Maconchy was b ...
,
Richard Stoker
Richard Stoker (8 November 1938 – 24 March 2021) was a British composer, writer, actor and artist.
There was a strong musical tradition in Stoker's family, and he showed an early aptitude, intrigued by the piano keyboard as soon as he was tal ...
and
Priaulx Rainier
Ivy Priaulx Rainier (3 February 190310 October 1986) was a South African-British composer. Although she lived most of her life in England and died in France, her compositional style was strongly influenced by the African music remembered from he ...
. In 1958, she was co-dedicatee and original performer with the tenor
Wilfred Brown of
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...
'
song cycle
A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online''
The songs are either for solo voice ...
''
Ten Blake Songs
''Ten Blake Songs'' is a song cycle for tenor or soprano voice and oboe composed over the Christmas period of 1957 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (18721958), for the 1958 film ''The Vision of William Blake'' by Guy Brenton for Morse Films. The firs ...
''.
At a memorial concert at Aylesbury in 1978, she performed the first oboe concerto by
Rutland Boughton
Rutland Boughton (23 January 187825 January 1960) was an English composer who became well known in the early 20th century as a composer of opera and choral music. He was also an influential communist activist within the Communist Party of Gre ...
.
References
External links
Craxton Memorial Trust: Janet Craxton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craxton, Janet
1929 births
1981 deaths
English classical oboists
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
Academics of the Royal Academy of Music
20th-century classical musicians
20th-century English musicians
Women oboists
20th-century English women musicians
Women music educators