Biography
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Born
20 February 1921
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Born In
Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, England, United Kingdom
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Died
23 February 1999 (aged 78)
Ruth Gipps (20 February 1921 – 23 February 1999) was a British composer, oboist, pianist and impresario.
Ruth Gipps was born in Bexhill-on-Sea, England in 1921. She was a child prodigy, winning performance competitions in which she was considerably younger than the rest of the field. After performing her first composition at the age of 8 in one of the numerous music festivals she entered, the work was bought by a publishing house for a guinea and a half. Winning a concerto competition with the Hastings Municipal Orchestra began her performance career in earnest.
In 1936 Gipps entered the Royal College of Music, where she studied theory, composition, piano, and eventually oboe, and where several works of hers were first performed. Continuing her studies at Durham University would lead her to teachers Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams, as well as her future husband, clarinettist Robert Baker.
She was an accomplished all-round musician, as a soloist on both oboe and piano as well as a prolific composer. Her repertoire include works such as Arthur Bliss's Piano Concerto and Constant Lambert's The Rio Grande. When she was 33 her performance career ended, however, due to a hand injury, and she decided to focus her energies on conducting and composition.
A turning point in Gipps' career was the Symphony No. 2, Op. 30, first performed in 1946, which showed the beginnings of her mature style. Gipps' music is marked by a skillful use of instrumental color, and often shows the influence of Vaughan Williams, rejecting the trends in avant-garde modern music such as serialism and twelve-tone music. She considered her orchestral works — particularly her five symphonies — her greatest works. Two substantial piano concertos were also produced.
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