Annie Sidonie Goossens OBE (19 October 1899 – 15 December 2004) was one of Britain's most enduring

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

ists. 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 Wallasey () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the mouth of the River Mersey, on the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county bou ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, a member of the famous Goossens musical family that had emigrated to Britain from Belgium 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. A biological fat ...

and

grandfather Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, or Grandma and Grandpa, 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 m ...

were both conductors, both called Eugène. Her brother Sir Eugene Goossens was a composer and conductor who spent many years working in Australia as the director of the NSW Conservatorium of Music and chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony. Her brother Léon was an eminent oboist and her sister Marie Goossens was also a distinguished harpist.Obituary in the ''Times'', 15 December 2004 In 1916, her brother

Adolphe ''Adolphe'' is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P***. Their illici ...

, 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 o ...

player, was killed in action at the

Somme __NOTOC__ Somme or The Somme may refer to: Places *Somme (department), a department of France * Somme, Queensland, Australia * Canal de la Somme, a canal in France *Somme (river), a river in France Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Somme'' (book), ...

at the age of 20.

Early career

As a child, she wanted to become an

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

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, 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 orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

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 communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

, and followed this up in 1936 by becoming the first to be broadcast on television (with the BBC Television Orchestra, 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. The ...

with whom she played for fifty years (1930–1980). The founder of the orchestra,

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

, 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 Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...

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

and

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

. 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 music ...

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

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 Coll ...

, Spike Hughes,

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 ...

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 ...

. Greenbaum 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

and

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

,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 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 when she accompanied Dame Gwyneth Jones in her own arrangement of " The Last Rose of Summer". There were celebratory concerts for her 100th birthday at London's Wigmore and Royal Festival Halls. She died in

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'', and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The ea ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, 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 Musicians from London People from Fulham Players of the BBC Symphony Orchestra British people of Belgian descent English women centenarians British harpists English classical harpists Officers of the Order of the British Empire Entertainers from Wallasey Sidonie Goossens London Symphony Orchestra players British women harpists