Record

CodeDS/UK/23483
NameAeolian Ladies' Orchestra (1886)
Variations of NameThe Rosabel Watson Orchestra | Æolian Ladies' Orchestra
Dates1886
GenderGroup (Female)
Place of Birth/OriginUnited Kingdom
RelationshipsRosabel Watson - founder and conductor

Notable Members:
Beatrice Pettit - cornet player, vocals (also associated with the English Ladies' Orchestral Society and Eleanor Clauson's Ladies' Pompadour Band)
BiographyThe Aeolian Ladies Orchestra was the first all-female Orchestra in the UK.

It was founded by Rosabel Watson. She was mentioned in The Common Cause, a Suffragist newspaper, in 1910 where, at a reception for the President and Council of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies given by Lady Frances Balfour, “….Miss Rosabel Watson’s orchestra will give a programme of music. Miss Watson’s band is composed largely, if not entirely, of ardent suffragists who are also excellent artistes…” The Aeolian Ladies Orchestra was the first all-female Orchestra in the UK.

Watson was a double bass player, a viola player and also was described as the “best woman horn-player in England”; evidently she was an excellent all-round musician.

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