| Biography | Cecil Aronowitz was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.
In 1935 he travelled to England on an overseas scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music. In 1939, World War II interrupted his studies and he spent the next six years in the army. When he returned to England, he switched to the viola. 1950 he co-founded the Melos Ensemble. Aronowitz was the violist of the group for decades, and Terence Weil was the cellist. He also played with the Pro Arte Piano Quartet, with Kenneth Sillito playing violin, and Terence Weil and Lamar Crowson playing piano. Aronowitz played regularly with the London Mozart Players and was the principal violist with the Goldsbrough Orchestra. He appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival every year from 1949 until his death.
He taught viola and chamber music at the Royal College of Music for 25 years, then in 1973 became the first Head of Strings at the newly formed Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. |