Annie Sidonie Goossens OBE (19 October 1899 – 15 December 2004) was one of

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

's most enduring harpists. She made her professional debut in 1921, was a founder member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and went on to play for more than half a century until her retirement in 1981.Rosen, Carole. ''The Goossens: A Musical Century'' (1993)

The Goossens family

She was born in

Liscard Liscard is an area of the town of Wallasey, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The most centrally located of Wallasey's townships, it is the main shopping area of the town, with many shops located in the Cherry Tree Sh ...

, Wallasey, Cheshire, a member of the famous Goossens family that had emigrated to Britain from

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in the 19th century. Her

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

and

grandfather Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic ...

were both conductors, both called Eugène. Her brother Sir Eugene Goossens made an international conducting career in the mid-20th century and was also a composer. He spent many years working in Australia as the director of the NSW Conservatorium of Music and chief conductor of the

Sydney Symphony The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra that was initially formed in 1908. Since its opening in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been its home concert hall. Simone Young is the orchestra's chief conductor and fir ...

. Her brother

Léon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

was an eminent oboist and her sister

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 ...

was also a distinguished harpist.Obituary in the ''Times'', 15 December 2004 In 1916, her brother Adolphe, a gifted

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 was killed in action.

Early career

As a child, she wanted to become an

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

but was encouraged by her father to play the harp.Obituary on the BBC website, 15 December 2004 Taught (like her elder sister Marie) by

Miriam Timothy Miriam Timothy (24 February 1879 – 1950) was a British harpist and teacher. She was a soloist, played with many London orchestras and taught harp at the Royal College of Music. Life Miriam Timothy was born in London on 24 February 1879, daughter ...

, she was already playing in public by the age of 16. When she joined 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 symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orc ...

in 1921, taking part in their first ever tour, she was the only female performer. In 1923 she became the first harpist to be broadcast on the

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

, and followed this up in 1936 by becoming the first to be broadcast on television (with the

BBC Television Orchestra The BBC Television Orchestra (1936–1939) was a broadcast orchestra founded in 1936 by conductor, violinist and composer Hyam Greenbaum and led by Boris Pecker. Hyam Greenbaum's wife Sidonie Goossens was the first solo harpist with the Orchest ...

, conducted by her then husband Hyam Greenbaum).

BBC Symphony Orchestra

She was a founder member of 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 ...

with whom she played for fifty years (1930–1980). The founder of the orchestra, Adrian Boult, engaged her as Principal Harp before the orchestra's first public concert in October 1939. She also played under guest conductors such as Arturo Toscanini,

Bruno Walter Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the U ...

and Arnold Schoenberg. She officially retired from the orchestra in 1980, the year it was celebrating its golden jubilee. At age 91 in 1991, she became the oldest person to perform at the Last Night of the Proms concert.

Personal and family life

She married her first husband, the conductor, violinist and composer Hyam Greenbaum, in 1924. In the late 1920s and early 1930s their London home (5 Wetherby Gardens, SW5) became a regular meeting place for musicians, including

Arnold Bax Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral musi ...

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in th ...

Patrick Hadley Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley (5 March 1899 – 17 December 1973) was a British composer. Biography Patrick Sheldon Hadley was born on 5 March 1899 in Cambridge. His father, William Sheldon Hadley, was at that time a fellow of Pembroke Co ...

Spike Hughes Patrick Cairns "Spike" Hughes (19 October 1908 – 2 February 1987) was a British musician, composer and arranger involved in the worlds of classical music and jazz. He has been called Britain's earliest jazz composer. Later in his career, he ...

, Alan Rawsthorne and

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...

. He died of alcohol-related problems, one day after his 41st birthday. With her second husband, Norman Millar, she moved to Reigate in Surrey, where they raised pigs and poultry at the 400-year-old Woodstock Farm, Gadbrook Road,

Betchworth Betchworth is a village and civil parish in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England. The village centre is on the north bank of the River Mole and south of the A25 road, almost east of Dorking and west of Reigate. London is north of the ...

.Mole Valley District Council. Historic Justification Statement, Woodstock Farm
/ref> She was a close personal friend of Sir Adrian Boult and Pierre Boulez,Robert Ponsonby: Musical Heroes, A Personal View of Music and the Musical World over Sixty Years (London: Giles de la Mare Publishers Ltd, 2009) 93-96, who wrote of her: 'Always her presence was reassuring, her professional conscience irreproachable, her attitude faultless. She loved her metier, her instrument. All this, really, was the reflection of her personality for which I have had from the first instant, not only the greatest admiration, but also an immense affection.'

Final years

She was honoured with a MBE in 1974, and later an OBE in 1980. She was recommended for a Damehood, but this was allegedly vetoed by

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

, who said: 'We can't give a DBE to an orchestral musician'. She retired officially from the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1980, the year of the orchestra's Golden Jubilee. Her final performance was in 1991 during the

Last Night 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 H ...

when she accompanied Dame Gwyneth Jones in her own arrangement of "

The Last Rose of Summer "The Last Rose of Summer" is a poem by the Irish poet Thomas Moore. He wrote it in 1805, while staying at Jenkinstown Castle in County Kilkenny, Ireland, where he was said to have been inspired by a specimen of Rosa 'Old Blush'. The poem is ...

". There were celebratory concerts for her 100th birthday at London's Wigmore and Royal Festival Halls. She died in

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...

, Surrey, on 15 December 2004 aged 105.

References

External links

telegraph.co.uk

International Who's Who. accessed 8 September 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Goossens, Sidonie 1899 births 2004 deaths People from Fulham BBC Symphony Orchestra British people of Belgian descent English centenarians British harpists English classical harpists Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Wallasey Sidonie Goossens London Symphony Orchestra players Women centenarians Women harpists