| Variations of Name | Basil George Cameron Hindenberg |
| Biography | Basil Cameron CBE was an English conductor.
He began his violin career studying with Joseph Joachim and Leopold Auer, later joining the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1912, Hindenberg began conducting at the seaside resort of Torquay. In 1914, at the start of World War I, it was considered less than ideal in England to bear such a Germanic-sounding name as Hindenberg, so the family name was discreetly dropped and he adopted his third name, Cameron, as his professional surname. He led festivals of Wagner and of Richard Strauss with the Torquay orchestra, which brought him to prominence in the English musical scene.
Cameron played an essential role in the immediate post World War II period at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts held in the Royal Albert Hall where, with Malcolm Sargent, he was responsible for the bulk of the programming, including the Bach/Brahms evening. One notable occasion was on 7 September 1945 when Cameron conducted the first performance in England of Schoenberg's Piano Concerto, with the 23 year-old pianist Kyla Greenbaum as the soloist. Despite some underlying hostility the work was received by the audience with unexpected enthusiasm, and Greenbaum played with "immense courage". |