Anne Macnaghten

Who is Anne Macnaghten?

Anne Macnaghten, CBE was a British classical violinist and pedagogue.

Anne was the youngest daughter of high court judge Sir Malcolm Macnaghten and grew up in Northern Ireland and Kensington, London. She began her violin studies at the age of six with Hungarian soloist Jelly d'Arányi. Macnaghten later stated in an interview with The Strad that d'Arányi "wasn't really a very good teacher". At the age of seventeen she travelled to Germany to study at Leipzig Conservatory with German pedagogue Walther Davisson, who later became the director of the conservatory.

In 1931 she co-founded the Macnaghten Concerts together with composer Elisabeth Lutyens and conductor Iris Lemare, which aimed to promote contemporary classical composers. The concert series was based at the Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate and originally ran from 1931-1937.

In the same year Macnaghten founded the Macnaghten String Quartet, which played in many of the series' concerts. The quartet premièred works of several well-known composers as part of the concert series, including Sinfonietta, Op. 1 by Benjamin Britten in 1933, Tippet's String Quartet No. 1 in 1935 and works by Gerald Finzi, Elizabeth Maconchy and Alan Rawsthorne. The Macnaghten String Quartet are still an active quartet and regularly coach chamber music at Benslow Music Trust.