Miriam Timothy (24 February 1879 – 1950) was a British

harpist The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various way ...

and teacher. She was a soloist, played with many London orchestras and taught harp 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 ...

Life

Miriam Timothy was born in London on 24 February 1879, daughter of Felix Festus Timothy and Jane ''née'' Hamblin. From 1890 to 1893 she studied with John Thomas 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 ...

, where she gained Bronze and Silver medals. She obtained a scholarship in 1893 to study at the Royal College of Music for three years, and later taught there; her students included the sisters Sidonie and

Marie Goossens Marie Henriette Goossens (11 August 1894 - 18 December 1991) was an English harpist, a member of the famous Goossens musical family and the older sister of Sidonie Goossens, also a harpist. Born in London, she was taught at the Royal College ...

.Timothy, Miriam (Jane)
Sophie Drinker Institute. Retrieved 2 November 2018. In September 1897 she appeared at a

Promenade Concert Promenade concerts were musical performances in the 18th and 19th century pleasure gardens of London, where the audience would stroll about while listening to the music. The term derives from the French ''se promener'', "to walk". Today, the te ...

at the

Queen's Hall The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it ...

, playing a solo by John Thomas. During the following years she played solos in concerts, and took part in chamber music. Miriam Timothy played for

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

Osborne House Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in t ...

; she afterwards became a member of the Queen's band, playing several times at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

. She was one of the musicians at the Coronation of Edward VII in 1902, and the Coronation of George V in 1911.Miriam Timothy, Harpist to Queen Victoria
33rpm.com. Retrieved 2 November 2018. She played with the Queen's Hall Orchestra and other orchestras. From May 1904 she was a member of 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 ...

, and accompanied the orchestra, with conductor

Arthur Nikisch Arthur Nikisch (12 October 185523 January 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed internationally, holding posts in Boston, London, Leipzig and—most importantly—Berlin. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of B ...

, in 1912 on a concert tour of the US. In 1920 she left London, and in the Caribbean met and married Lt-Col Robert L Deane OBE(1879–1969); he was later Commissioner of Police in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

. She died there in 1950. Percy A. Scholes. "Timothy, Miriam". ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music''. Oxford University Press, 1964.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timothy, Miriam 1879 births 1950 deaths British harpists Women harpists English classical harpists Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Alumni of the Royal College of Music Academics of the Royal College of Music