Sidney Griller

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(10 January 1911 – 20 November 1993) was an English violinist. He was leader of the

Griller Quartet The Griller String Quartet was a British musical ensemble particularly active from 1931 to c.1961 or 1963, when it was disbanded. The quartet was in residence at the University of California at Berkeley from 1949 to 1961. It performed a wide repert ...

from 1928 to 1963, and a teacher of chamber music at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools 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 firs ...

Life

Griller was born in 1911; his parents, Salter Griller and Hannah Green, were Jewish immigrants, with a shop in the East End of London. Aged 13, he won a scholarship to the

.Obituary: Sidney Griller
''

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'', 23 November 1993. Retrieved 23 November 2018. While at the Royal Academy of Music, Griller was a winner of the Dove Scholarship (1925), a Gowland Harrison scholar (1928 & 1929), a prizeholder of the Sir Edward Cooper Prize (1927 & 1928) and a winner of the Alfred J. Waley Prize (1928). He graduated in 1929 with the Academy’s Certificate of Merit, its highest award.Scholarships and Prizes Royal Academy of Music (1927/1928); Prize Lists of the Royal Academy of Music (1927-1929) In 1928, whilst a student at the RAM he founded the

, Percy A. Scholes. "Griller, Sidney". ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music''. Oxford University Press, 1964. coached initially by the viola player

Lionel Tertis Lionel Tertis, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (29 December 187622 February 1975) was an English viola, violist. He was one of the first viola players to achieve international fame, and a noted teacher. Career Tertis was born ...

. By 1931 the quartet established a reputation in Europe. In January 1931 they made a debut in

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, and subsequently obtained a contract with

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. The quartet played classics and contemporary works, and made recordings. In 1932 Griller married Honor Linton; they had a son and daughter. During the Second World War the quartet gave many concerts for the RAF. In 1949 they became resident quartet at

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

. In 1945 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM). Griller was appointed CBE in 1951. The quartet disbanded in 1963; in 1964 he returned to the Royal Academy of Music, teaching chamber music, and his classes began the careers of a number of successful string quartets including the

Alberni Quartet The Alberni Quartet is a British string quartet, whose members have included: * 1st violin Dennis Simons, then Howard Davis, currently Karin Leishman * 2nd violin Howard Davis, then John Knight, then Peter Pople, currently Victoria Sayles * Viol ...

, the

Coull Quartet The Coull Quartet is an English string quartet that was founded at the Royal Academy of Music, London in 1974 under the guidance of renowned quartet leader, Sidney Griller. They were appointed Quartet-in-Residence by the University of Warwick ...

, the

Fitzwilliam Quartet The Fitzwilliam Quartet or Fitzwilliam String Quartet (FSQ) is a British string quartet. The group was founded in 1968 by four Cambridge undergraduates. There have been a number of changes in personnel over the years, but Alan George from the or ...

and the

Lindsay Quartet The Lindsay String Quartet (or The Lindsays) was a British string quartet from 1965 to 2005. History The quartet first performed at the Royal Academy of Music in 1965 to compete for a prize and set out to make the string quartets of Bartók an ...

. He also gave chamber music classes at the

Yehudi Menuhin School The Yehudi Menuhin School is a specialist music school in Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, England, founded in 1963 by violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin. The current director of music is the British classical pianist Ashley Wass. The school is one ...

. In 1981 at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

he received an honorary doctorate from the Fitzwilliam Quartet, the resident quartet there. After retirement from the Royal Academy of Music in 1986, he gave masterclasses at the

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music education ...

, and sat on juries of international competitions. Griller died in London in 1993, aged 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griller, Sidney 1911 births 1993 deaths Musicians from London Jewish classical violinists Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music 20th-century British classical violinists English classical violinists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire