Career
Originally, Violet played the piano, but she rose to fame playing the harpsichord and clavichord. An important influence on her was Arnold Dolmetsch, a pioneer of the early music revival, who began making copies of old keyboard instruments in the 1890s. Dolmetsch supplied Violet with instruments and gave her instruction on how to play them. In 1899 Violet performed Bach's Concerto for Three Harpsichords in C at a public concert in London. The other two harpsichordists in the Bach were Elodie Desirée (the second Mrs Dolmetsch) and Dolmetsch himself. Dolmetsch worked abroad in the early twentieth century, but Violet resumed her collaboration with him in 1910. As well as early music repertoire Violet, played music by nineteenth century composers and living composers such as Delius, who dedicated a harpsichord piece to her. Some recordings of her playing survive.
She taught the Australian keyboard player Valda Aveling.
Read more about this topic: Violet Gordon-Woodhouse
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