Ruth Gipps

When faced with Ruth Gipps as a student, Sir Hugh Allen, the director of the Royal College of Music, declared that she ‘will go far because she is obstinate. She is damned obstinate!’ Allen’s assessment proved correct. She was indeed an ambitious, determined and uncompromising woman. Those who knew her found her difficult and stubborn, yet without these personality traits Gipps might never have become the figure she did, with multiple successful careers as a composer, conductor, pianist and oboist.

Gipps (or ‘Wid’, as she preferred to be known) was a musical prodigy. Taught piano by her mother Hélène, she made her public debut as a pianist aged five, and had her first, prize-winning work published by the time she was eight. This short piano piece, , caused some controversy as reviewers, sceptical that a young girl could have produced such an inventive piece, suggested that Hélène