Global InformationWalter Willson Cobbett Medal information
The Walter Willson Cobbett Medal is awarded annually by the Worshipful Company of Musicians "in recognition of services to Chamber Music". It was established in 1924 and endowed with £50 by Walter Willson Cobbett (1847–1937), an amateur violinist and expert on chamber music who went on to serve as the company's master in 1928–29.[1] Cobbett had previously instigated the Cobbett Competition for chamber music (from 1905), and later was the primary author of the two volume Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, first published in 1929.
The first recipient of the medal in 1924 was Thomas Dunhill, a committed composer of chamber music who had also set up an annual series of concerts in London to perform British works: his concerts ran from 1907 until 1919 and included the music of several subsequent winners of the Cobbett medal, including Ralph Vaughan Williams and Charles Wood. The following year the award went to the American patron of music Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, founder of the Berkshire Music Festival in Massachusetts. Coolidge showed an affinity for British music from the first event in 1918, but the 1923 Festival in particular was programmed to be a showcase for modern British composers. Included were chamber works by Arnold Bax, Frank Bridge, Rebecca Clarke, Benjamin Dale and Eugene Goossens.[2]
The Cobbett Medal was registered as a charity in 1964.[3] The medal itself, designed by Gilbert Bayes, is silver-gilt and features a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven.[4][5]
- ^ "Cobbett, Walter Willson" in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan Company, 1927)
- ^ Banfield, Stephen. 'Too Much of Albion?: Mrs Coolidge and her British Connections', in American Music, Vol 4 No 1 (Spring 1986)
- ^ Charity Commission: The Cobbett Medal
- ^ "The Walter Willson Cobbett Medal", The Musician's Company. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
- ^ 'The Cobbett Medal by Gilbert Bayes (1872-1953)', Victorian Web