Anna Shuttleworth

Anna Shuttleworth (born 1927) is a cellist from the United Kingdom. She studied cello with Ivor James and Harvey Phillips at the Royal College of Music and later became a professor at the same college. Her pupils have included Alexander Baillie, Natalie Clein and Frantisek Brikcius.

Anna is currently writing her biography called "“The Swellest Cellist”", which is what Ralph Vaughan Williams called Anna after a performance in the 1950s. The book will be published on 15 January 2009.

Anna Shuttleworth was born in Bournemouth on 2 May 1927, the only child of a retired Indian Civil Service father and a Polish-Irish mother. Both Anna’s grandfathers were doctors, Anna’s mother’s father, Neil Macgillycuddy, was a GP in Bournemouth and Anna’s father’s father, George Edward Shuttleworth, a doctor specialising in the early provision of mental health in Lancaster and London. Neil was married to Jadwiga Janasz from Poland, and Jadwiga’s sister, Dorotea, was also married in England. Unfortunately Dorotea died soon after childbirth and her daughter Dora was brought up by Neil and Jadwiga. George Shuttleworth was married to Edith Hadwen, who played the harp.

Anna’s father Lee, like his father, was well educated and Lee read classics at Pembroke College, Oxford. In around 1904 he continued his studies at the University College London (London School of Oriental Studies) where he trained for the Indian Civil Service. After this he was posted to India. On leave in 1915 he attended the wedding of his sister, Ella, where he met Inez, Anna’s mother, and shortly afterwards they married. In 1917 he was appointed Assistant Commissioner based in the Western Himalayas.

Anna’s mother Inez’s maiden name was Macgillycuddy, from the Macgillycuddy Reeks (mountains in the south of Ireland). The Macgillycuddy of the Reeks is the chief of the clan, and like a Duke or an Earl in the 16th century was given a coat of arms with “Sursum Corda” written on it.

Anna’s early days were spent in Hampstead, London, attending St Christopher’s School. At the age of five she was given the opportunity to have cello lessons with Dulce Rapaport, who spent six devoted years teaching Anna. Under Dulce’s excellent supervision, Anna quickly progressed and was awarded, at the age of 12, a scholarship at the Talbot Heath School for Girls, Bournemouth. At Talbot Heath, Anna learned the cello with Ernst Slaney, the principal cellist of the wartime Bournemouth Orchestra. At the early age of 16, in mid war 1943, Anna went to study the cello at the Royal College of Music (RCM) as a scholar. There she learned with Ivor James and Harvey Philips. At the RCM she was a contemporary of other well-known British musicians such as Joan Dickson, Amaryllis Fleming, Martin Lovett, Eileen Croxford, Hugo Cole, Dame Thea King, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Colin Davis, Monica Sinclair, Gervase de Payer, William Waterhouse, Paul Ward, Tessa and Sasha Robins, Gwyneth George, Peggy Gray, Patrick Ireland and Mary Goodman. While at the RCM Anna became a founding member of the Vivien Hind String Quartet, an ensemble that she played with for a number of years. After leaving the RCM her friend Joan Dickson organised for the cellist Enrico Mainardi to give lessons in London for which Anna took part. She also continued her studies with Franz Walter in Geneva.

Shortly after leaving college, Anna was invited to play at the Newbury Festival with the Newbury String Players, both in the orchestra and later as a soloist. This initiated a long friendship with the family of Gerald Finzi and their musical circle, including Ursula and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Anna wrote about this time in a note for the Finzi Trust Journal "“I felt at once that somehow I belonged there, musically, spiritually, artistically and intellectually, in every way. Their way of living was so ‘rich’, not with money but with warmth and friendship based on similar ideals about music and life.”" This period also witnessed a richly varied freelance career, playing in a number of festival orchestras, as a chamber musician and soloist. Anna was at this time affectionately referred to as “The Swellest Cellist”. Vaughan Williams called Anna this after a performance. It is suspected that Vaughan Williams’ remark included a touch of humour, indicating both Anna’s beautiful cello sound and her full rich body.

In 1953, at the recommendation of the composer Herbert Howells, Anna entered for the Boise scholarship and in 1954 was awarded a substantial sum to further her cello studies. This she used to study with Mainardi in Salzburg and Rome, and with Pablo Casals in Zermatt and Prades.

Anna has been married twice, first time to Noel Taylor who himself studied the cello at the RCM in the late thirties. During the war Noel was a pilot in the Canadian Air Force, after which he was sub-principal cellist in a London Orchestra. Noel had skin trouble on his hands so bought his own recording studio. When Anna met Noel in 1953 he lived in a recording studio in Lansdowne Road. Anna married Noel in 1957 but they soon divorced. Anna met her second husband David Sellen, on a language summer school in Italy in the sixties and they married in 1973. David’s career as a biophysics researcher and lecturer at Leeds University was a stark contrast with Anna’s musical life.

1957 started a turbulent period in Anna’s life. Because Noel wished to go to live on a Pacific Island, she decided to do a teacher training course at Trent Park (now Middlesex University) to take a PGCE. Attending this course was not easy for Anna, who was not used to average musical standards of such an establishment. She then moved to Marlborough in Wiltshire to teach at various schools, including Marlborough College, Dauntsey’s School, Cranborne Chase and later Downe House. While at Trent Park Anna’s parents left their home in England and set out on an epic retirement journey with Anna’s father not returning to England ever again. Anna’s parents travelled together to Athens overland and then Anna’s father (at the age of 75) left Anna’s mother in Athens while he continued his overland travels to India to rediscover his time with the Indian Civil Service during the early part of the 20th century. Meanwhile Anna’s mother returned to England where Anna was left to look after her. When Anna’s father died in 1960 Anna struggled to find a suitable home for her mother but eventually a cousin of Anna’s, Nancy Hadwen, stepped in and purchased a house for Anna and her mother to live in. In 1978 Anna’s mother died. Later Anna and Nancy became very close friends and together with David, Anna’s husband, they often travelled on holiday together.

In the 1960s, Anna’s career took off and she became a member of several ensembles and performed for many BBC broadcasts. In 1964 Novello published “Learning the cello” which Anna wrote jointly with Hugo Cole. Also in 1964 she met up with Mstislav Rostropovich when he requested her to teach the Hochhauser’s (Rostropovich’s agent) children. At that time, Anna had a lesson with Rostropovich who complimented Anna on her beautiful cello sound. This is also the year when she is invited to teach the cello at the Junior Department at the RCM, followed by the appointment to the Senior Department in 1967. In 1968 she is approved as an Associated Board examiner and also buys her very first Renault 4, the car that was to become her trademark transport, travelling around the country.

The 1970s was Anna’s golden period and through the connection with Hilary Finzi, Jacqueline du Pre’s sister, Anna was allowed to play on Jacqui’s Davidov Stradivarius for two years. She became a “sought after” cello professor at the RCM and taught many of today’s well-know musicians, including Adrian Brendel, Alexander Baillie, Andrew Yeats (later a singer) Avis Perthen, Cara Berridge, Clare Finzi, Dan Burrows, David Newby, Elizabeth Wilson, Fanny Warnock, Giles Melville, Helen Verney (and later her daughter Lara), James Oxley (a singer), Janet Crouch, John Cottle, Jonathan del Mar, Josephine Horder, Judy Bird, Kate Gould, Lucinda Ebbutt, Marius May, Martin Heath, Mary Mundy, Michael Allis, Muriel Daniels, Nicholas Dimbleby, Nicholas Stringfellow, Nick Roberts, Nicola Thompson, Simon Morris, Shuna Wilson and Susan Sutherley. But, as Anna felt like she had neglected her academic career, and partly to better understand David’s work at the Leeds University, she attended an Open University course 1971-75 and was awarded a B.A. Hons. Degree in 1975. In 1972 Anna put Stuart Lowe (a keen amateur cellist) in contact with Sue Jennings (one of Anna’s cello students at the RCM) and later Stuart and Sue married. Anna taught Matthew, Daniel and Time Lowe at Sue’s request. Anna and Sue developed a longstanding teaching relationship and together, and with the Lowe family members and Alexander Baillie, they created “Gathering of the Clans”, a long running cello course with teachers such as Baillie and Johannes Goritzki as well as Alexander teachers/cellists Vivien Mackie and Rhuna Martin. Other cellists included Joan Dickson, Amanda Truelove, Paul Feehan, Sasha Boyarsky, Lowri Blake, Andreas Burzik, Melissa Phelps, Louise Hopkins, and Moray Welsh.

Since the 1960s Anna has performed many successful piano and cello recitals with some of the leading pianists in Britain, including Bernhard Roberts, Ian Brown, Martin Roscoe and John Thwaites. Since leaving the RCM in the late 1940s Anna has been a member of numerous chamber music ensembles including a string trio with Elisabeth Watson (viola), Georgian String Quartet, Leonardo Trio (first with David Roth, later with Maureen Smith, violin and with Ian Brown, piano), London Harpsichord Ensemble, Glickman Trio and Aulos Ensemble. When in London she knew Sylvia Cleaver who in 1964 asked Anna to become the principal cellist of the Midland Sinfonia Orchestra (later renamed the English Sinfonia). She held this post until she retired from the orchestra in 1996. Apart from this, Anna has worked with many orchestras over the years such as the Alexander Orchestra (founded by Denys Darlow) which later became the Tilford Bach Orchestra, Chelsea Opera Group, Kalmar Orchestra, Sadler’s Wells Opera Orchestra (now English National Opera) and Orchestra d'Amici.

Anna has always loved to travel and has spent many holidays around the world with a particular fondness for Scandinavia. In the early seventies, the Swedish cellist Frans Helmerson stayed at Anna’s house and they became friends. Then while teaching at the Great Missenden Summer course in Berkshire, Anna met the Swedish musical Frankmar family who brought her over to Sweden for various summer courses. There she met cellists Ludvig Frankmar and Tomas Sterner who came to study with her in London. In 1979 Tomas became her cello pupil at the RCM and is now, thirty years later, editing her memoirs. Tomas and Anna also helped to organise two string courses in Guernsey in the early 1980s.

In 1985, while on tour with the Associated Board in Malaysia, Anna met Toya, a Batik artist living in Penang, and his nephew Kia. Anna helped both of them, firstly by organising exhibitions of Toya’s work in England and secondly by sponsoring Kia to study at Leeds University. In 1986 she again worked for the Associated Board, examining in Australia and New Zealand.Anna’s teaching career evolved over the years. From initially teaching at independent schools and later being appointed a professor at the RCM she eventually took on many teaching positions in England, including Canterbury, Leeds and York Universities as well as at Leeds Girls High School. On top of this she had many private pupils. In 1994, Anna’s teaching became more widely known when her pupil, Natalie Clein, won both the UK and European Young Musician of the Year competitions. Although this was at a time when Anna was near retirement, she was now very much a sought after teacher. Much later she taught the very talented Czech cellist Frantisek Brikcius, who came to Leeds University as an Erasmus scholar.

In retirement Anna has slowed down but not yet stopped. She made her final cello and piano duo recitals in 2003 and now plays the Treble and Bass Viols and sings early music. She teaches the cello if requested.

In 2008 Anna was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal College of Music from Prince Charles. This follows a number of years when she has supported the RCM and also created a cello prize in her own name.

Publications

Anna Shuttleworth has co-written a cello method for young cellists aged 10 and upwards [citation
last1 = Cole
first1 = Hugo
last2 = Shuttleworth
first2 = Anna
title = Playing the Cello
publisher = Novello & Co Ltd
date = 1971
location = Music Sales Head Office, 14 -15 Berners Street, London W1T 3LJ. United Kingdom
url = http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/04569/details.html] , and is working on her autobiography [cite web
last = Shuttleworth
first = Anna
title = Anna Shuttleworth: An Unexpected Musician (Draft)
url=http://annashuttleworth.com/
date = 2007-05-02
accessdate = 2008-07-30 ] .

Recordings

Anna Shuttleworth has made several recordings with Alfred Deller (counter-tenor). For example, Purcell's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day [cite web
title = Philip Jones Brass Ensemble - LP / CD
publisher = Argo / Vanguard
date = 1956
url=http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/pjbe/db/show.php?&id=75
accessdate = 2008-08-08 ] and Purcell's Te Deum and Jubilate Deo [citation
title = Purcell Te Deum and Jubilate Deo - CD
publisher = Musique d'abord
date = 1999] .

References