Livia Ruth Gollancz (25 May 1920 − 28 March 2018) was the first female principal

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

of a major UK

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

Early life and education

Livia Ruth Gollancz was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

on 25 May 1920. Gollancz was the eldest child of the artist and architect

Ruth Gollancz Ruth, Lady Gollancz (née Lowy; 1892–1973) was a British artist and wife of Sir Victor Gollancz. Life and work Ruth was the daughter of Ernest Daniel Lowy, a stockbroker. Ruth Gollancz studied art at the Slade School of Art from 1909-12 under t ...

(née Lowy) and the publisher

Victor Gollancz Sir Victor Gollancz (; 9 April 1893 – 8 February 1967) was a British publisher and humanitarian. Gollancz was known as a supporter of left-wing causes. His loyalties shifted between liberalism and communism, but he defined himself as a Christ ...

. Gollancz was the eldest of five sisters. She and her siblings, Diana, Julia, the artist Vita Gollancz and Francesca Gollancz were the dedicatees of the 1932 "An Outline For Boys And Girls And Their Parents." Her schooling took place at Kensington High School (now Kensington Preparatory School) and

St Paul's Girls' School St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England. History St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...

. Her early musical education had included learning the clarinet though she was more successful as a pianist and violinist later changing to the viola. In order to ensure that Gollancz did not leave school without having completed her school certificate her mother offered her extra maths tuition necessary to pass her exams in return for a French horn. In 1936 Gollancz was initially accepted to study at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

as a first study viola player and with Frank Probyn as a second study

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

player though after 18 months she switched to first study French horn.

Musical career

Following her studies Gollancz joined The Queen's Hall Light Orchestra. Other engagements included deputy 2nd horn for the Scottish Orchestra (now

Royal Scottish National Orchestra The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) ( gd, Orcastra Nàiseanta Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a British orchestra, based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of the five National performing arts companies of Scotland, national performing arts compa ...

), 1940–41, 4th horn for The BBC Theatre Orchestra, 1942–43, and 3rd horn with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

in 1941. During her performing career she freelanced with many theatre and concert orchestras including

The Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit organization, not-for-profit producing house, producing theatre in Waterloo, London, Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Th ...

Company and 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 ...

. The conductor and founder of

The Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named 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 Hal ...

Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) 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 hund ...

heard Gollancz performing with the London Symphony Orchestra in May 1941 and was prompted to write to her the following day: "Dear Miss Gollancz, A year or two ago your father told me you were studying the horn and at yesterday's concert I had the pleasure of seeing you, particularly in the Brahms Second Piano Concerto. May I offer you my warmest congratulations, your tone and phrasing in the solo passages allotted to the third horn rang out splendidly in the body of the hall – a real achievement for a woman artist – Bravo. Sincerely yours, Henry J. Wood." In 1941, the first year of the Proms being held at the Royal Albert Hall, Gollancz was engaged as 4th horn with the

conducted by

for a concert of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, performing the famous solo written for that chair. In June 1943 Gollancz was appointed principal horn of Sir

John Barbirolli Sir John Barbirolli ( Giovanni Battista Barbirolli; 2 December 189929 July 1970) was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 194 ...

's Hallé Orchestra making her the first female principal horn of a UK orchestra. Her section comprise herself, Jimmy Dennis, Enid Roper and Raymond Meert. When Barbirolli became conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in 1943, he chose Livia as principal horn. She admired his insistence that female musicians should be treated on their musical merits, but after two years they parted company when she told him his approach to classical music was “too romantic for my taste”, an opinion she later regretted as the “audacity and stupidity of youth”. She then joined the Scottish Orchestra (1943–45, now the Royal Scottish National Orchestra), and the BBC Scottish Orchestra (1945–46, now the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra). In 1945 Gollancz resigned from the Hallé due to her judging Barbirolli's approach to classical music as "too romantic for my taste". She subsequently joined the Scottish Orchestra (now

) followed by The

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional rad ...

as principal horn. In 1947 she returned to London as principal horn 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 Ope ...

; however here she was faced with working with

Karl Rankl Karl Rankl (1 October 1898 – 6 September 1968) was a British conductor and composer who was of Austrian birth. A pupil of the composers Schoenberg and Webern, he conducted at opera houses in Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia until fleeing f ...

who, resistant to female musicians being engaged, refused to work with her. From 1950 to 1952 Gollancz was principal horn of the

Sadler's Wells Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English. ...

and in 1952 she was principal horn for the Ballets Russes.

Publishing career

In the early 1950s Gollancz developed dental problems which ultimately shortened her performing career. Therefore, in 1953 she took up her father's invitation and joined

Victor Gollancz Ltd Victor Gollancz Ltd () was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. Gollancz was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz, an ...

. Gollancz worked her way up through the firm, from making coffee, to writing cover copy and eventually to editing. Her father nurtured her career and when he endured a stroke in 1966, Gollancz stepped into the role of managing director. Gollancz was chairman of the company 1983 until 1989, when Victor Gollancz Ltd was sold to Houghton Mifflin.

References

*Rebecca Abrams "Woman in a Man's World: Pioneering Career Women of the Twentieth Century" (Methuen, 1993) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gollancz, Livia 1920 births 2018 deaths British classical horn players Alumni of the Royal College of Music London Symphony Orchestra players BBC people Royal Opera House Ballets Russes and descendants Musicians from London 20th-century British musicians 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century British women musicians Women horn players