1908 in British music

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This is a summary of 1908 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

26 March – The first public performance of York Bowen's Viola Concerto is given by Lionel Tertis at the Wigmore Hall.^[1]
31 July – Frederick Septimus Kelly wins a gold medal for Great Britain as a member of the winning crew in the eights at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.^[2]
3 December – Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 1 receives its première at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, performed by the Hallé Orchestra and conducted by Hans Richter.^[3]
7 December – Four days after its première, Elgar's Symphony No. 1 is performed at the Queen's Hall by the London Symphony Orchestra, again conducted by Hans Richter.^[4]
date unknown – Alexander Mackenzie becomes President of the International Musical Society.^[5]

"Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?" ("Kelly from the Isle of Man") by Clarence Wainwright Murphy & Will Letters
"I Hear You Calling Me" by Harold Lake & Charles Marshall^[6]
"The Outlaw" by William Wallace

12 January – Joan Mary Last, music educator, author and composer (died 2002)^[11]
28 January – Jimmy Shand, accordionist and bandleader (died 2000)
29 February – A. L. Lloyd, folk song collector (died 1982)
18 March – Ivor Moreton, singer, composer and pianist (died 1984)
25 March – Bridget D'Oyly Carte, head of D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (died 1985)
10 July – Donald Peers, singer (died 1973)
18 July – Barry Gray, television composer (died 1984)
19 October
- Spike Hughes, jazz musician, composer and music journalist (died 1987)^[12]
- Sydney MacEwan, singer and priest (died 1991)
21 October – Howard Ferguson, composer and musicologist (died 1999)
17 December – William Brocklesby Wordsworth, English/Scottish composer and pianist (died 1988)
date unknown – Jeannie Robertson, folk singer (died 1975)

^ John France (10 February 2007). "York Bowen Viola Concerto (1907) The Centenary of a Minor Masterpiece". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
^ Frederick Kelly Archived 1 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Sports Reference Olympic Sports
^ Reed, W H. Elgar, J M Dent and Sons Ltd, London, 1943. p 97
^ *Kennedy, Michael. Elgar Orchestral Music. BBC Publications, London, 1970. p 53.
^ "Mackenzie, Sir Alexander Campbell", Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, 2007, accessed 28 September 2009
^ Western Daily Press, "Romance and Tears of a Famous Ballad, Author of 'Hear You Calling Me' Dead", 5 Aug 1933, p. 9
^ Lecture on Harry Evans (Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society, November 12th 2011), by Professor Huw Rees, President, Liverpool Welsh Choral Union
^ Savoy Theatre. "A Welsh Sunset", The Times, 18 July 1908, p. 10
^ Cast and productions details at The Play Pictorial website (1902–1910) of the Templeman Library at the University of Kent at Canterbury
^ Synopsis, list of roles and list of musical numbers
^ Sadie, Julie Anne; Samuel, Rhian (1994). The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
^ Spike Hughes, Opening Bars – Beginning an Autobiography (Pilot Press Ltd, London, 1946)