Maude Valérie White

Maude Valérie White
(b Dieppe, 23 June 1855; d London, 2 Nov 1937). English composer She studied composition with George Macfarren and Frank Davenport at the RAM in London from 1876 to 1881.

In 1879 she was the first woman to win the coveted Mendelssohn Scholarship and she began to attract critical acclaim in the early 1880s when Charles Santley started to champion her songs at the Popular Concerts and the Crystal Palace. After a period in Chile (1881–2) she returned to London where she embarked on a professional musical career, encouraged by patrons such as May Gaskell, Spencer Lyttelton and Frank Schuster. In 1883 she spent six months studying with Robert Fuchs in Vienna. From the 1890s she organized regular concerts, largely of her own music, with the aid of friends and colleagues. From 1901, prompted by both recurrent ill-health and her love of travel, White spent much of each year in Italy. In 1914 her ballet The Enchanted Heart was rehearsed for performance in Rome, whilst an orchestral suite from the work was scheduled by Henry Wood for the 1915 Promenade Concerts. In the event, both performances had to be cancelled. A proficient linguist and engaging writer, White published translations of several literary texts and two volumes of memoirs: Friends and Memories (London, 1914) and My Indian Summer (London, 1932).