Frederick Grinke CBE was a Canadian-born violinist who had an international career as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher.
18 Facts About Frederick Grinke
1.
2.
Frederick Grinke was known especially for his performances of 20th-century English music.
3.
Frederick Grinke started learning to play the violin at the age of 9, and studied with John Waterhouse and others in Winnipeg.
4.
Frederick Grinke made his first broadcast at the age of about 12, and formed a trio at age 15.
5.
Frederick Grinke continued his studies for a summer with Adolf Busch in Switzerland, and afterwards in Belgium and London with Carl Flesch.
6.
From around 1930 to 1936, Grinke was second violin of the Kutcher String Quartet.
7.
Frederick Grinke began teaching as Professor at the Royal Academy in 1939.
8.
Frederick Grinke performed before Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Harry S Truman at the Potsdam Three-Power Conference.
9.
Frederick Grinke remained concertmaster for the Boyd Neel Orchestra until 1947, performing in Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand, and at the London Proms, Salzburg and the Edinburgh Festival.
10.
Frederick Grinke resigned from it to pursue his solo career.
11.
Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated his Sonata in A minor, written in 1952, to Frederick Grinke, who recorded the composer's Concerto Accademico in D minor, and The Lark Ascending, with the Boyd Neel Orchestra.
12.
Frederick Grinke made a broadcast of the Arnold Bax concerto from Australia.
13.
Frederick Grinke is heard with Kendall Taylor in the Dvorak G major Sonatina op 100, and with Watson Forbes in Mozart duos.
14.
Frederick Grinke premiered and recorded works by Arthur Benjamin, Benjamin Dale, Lennox Berkeley, Kenneth Leighton, Edmund Rubbra, York Bowen, Howard Ferguson, Arthur Bliss, Bela Bartok, Beethoven, Handel, Rachmaninoff and Smetana, often accompanied by Ivor Newton.
15.
Frederick Grinke recorded a complete Brandenburg Concertos with the Boyd Neel.
16.
Frederick Grinke retired from the Royal Academy of Music in 1978, where his students included John Georgiadis, and was appointed a CBE in 1979, but continued teaching until his death, which occurred in 1987.
17.
Frederick Grinke was married in 1942 to Dorothy Sirr Sheldon and had one son.
18.
Frederick Grinke is buried in the churchyard of St Mary, Thornham Parva, Suffolk.