| Biography | Eleanor Warren, who has died aged 86, flourished as cellist, administrator and mother. Born in London, her German mother a good amateur cellist, she became, at the age of five, the youngest-ever student at the London Cello School (LCS). For her first concert appearance, her eighth-size cello was tuned by John Barbirolli, later to become a close friend.
Soon she was winning prizes at festivals and competitions. The great Gregor Piatigorsky advised her, as a child of Jewish parents at a time of turmoil on the continent, to study in London. Herbert Walenn persuaded her to stay at his LCS, where her contemporaries were Olga Hegedus and Zara Nelsova.
Piatigorsky introduced her to his agent Harold Holt, who in 1935 arranged Eleanor's first Wigmore Hall appearance, where, partnered by Ernest Lush, she played works by Handel and Boccherini, and the Rachmaninov Sonata. Celebrity concerts followed, sharing the platform with such artists asJohn McCormack, Richard Tauber and Paul Robeson; there were solo and concerto dates in England, Belgium, Holland and Canada. In between, she had lessons with Pablo Casals and Pierre Fournier.
She married Walter Susskind, in 1943, but their marriage was dissolved in 1953.
Eleanor dived into the London scene, working with the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Zorian Quartet and the English Baroque Ensemble, also taking part in film sessions with Malcolm Arnold, Jacques Loussier and Richard Rodney Bennett. Her solo career diminished somewhat, possibly because her tone was not heard at its best in large venues like the Royal Albert Hall. Her playing days ended in the early 1960s because of a bad back.
In 1964 she joined the BBC, first as an assistant in the music department, but proving her worth and talent quickly, so that she was soon devising programmes and whole series. In particular, she established the Monday lunchtime concerts that she got the BBC to run in the newly restored St John's, Smith Square. She was promoted to chief producer in 1971 and became involved with the Leeds Piano Competition. Four years later she was promoted to head of music programmes, radio.
In 1977 the bureaucracy of the corporation got her down so much that she accepted an offer to become head of strings at the newly recreated Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Because of her interest in young performers, it was a job perfect for her and she was responsible for a tradition of masterclasses and recitals with some of the greatest musicians of the times, including Pierre Fournier, Julian Bream, John Williams, the Vermeer Quartet and double bass virtuoso Gary Kerr. She also helped to create and run the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1978.
In 1984, Eleanor returned to London, now organising chamber music at the Guildhall School of Music and Royal College of Music. Retirement was not a word she knew, and she continued to advise and help musicians.
Above all Eleanor loved music and musicians. At the BBC she welcomed artists and treated them kindly. An administrator, yes, but also a friend. Music for her was a cause, a way of life, and she left the world of music a better place for her participation. She ignored her first encounter with cancer, but finally it caught up with her.
Eleanor Catherine Warren, cellist, administrator and radio producer, born June 15 1919; died August 25 2005 |