69 Facts About Harriet Cohen

Harriet Pearl Alice Cohen CBE was a British pianist.

Harriet Cohen's younger sister was the singer Myra Verney and she was a distant cousin of the pianist Irene Scharrer.

Harriet Cohen studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay, having won the Ada Lewis scholarship at the age of 12 followed by the Sterndale Bennett Prize in 1913.

Harriet Cohen made her debut at a Chappell's Sunday concert at the Queen's Hall a year later.

At this stage Cohen had ambitions to be a composer: her Russian Impressions for piano became her only original compositions to be published.

Harriet Cohen became particularly associated with contemporary British music, giving the world premiere of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Piano Concerto and recording Edward Elgar's Piano Quintet with the Stratton Quartet under the composer's supervision.

Harriet Cohen composed Concertino for Left Hand for her after she lost the use of her right hand in 1948.

Harriet Cohen dedicated an important effort to the performance of the Tudor composers at a time when this was unusual, and gave recitals of works by William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons and of Henry Purcell.

Harriet Cohen gave the first 'all-Bach' recital at the Queen's Hall in 1925.

Harriet Cohen cultivated Spanish music, and gave the second performance of Manuel de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain, a work which became especially associated with her.

Harriet Cohen was an early exponent of music of the Soviet Union in Britain, and visited Russia in 1935 to broadcast from Moscow and Leningrad, including works by Shostakovich, Kabalevsky and Leonid Polovinkin.

Harriet Cohen became strongly associated in the 1930s with publicising the plight of German and Austrian Jews and even played a concert with the scientist Albert Einstein in 1934 to raise funds to bring Jewish scientists out of Germany.

Harriet Cohen became a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt and Ramsay MacDonald as well as the first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann.

Harriet Cohen was a close friend of many leading figures of the time.

Harriet Cohen became one of the most talked-about and photographed musicians of her day.

Harriet Cohen was vice-president of the Women's Freedom League, and was for several years associated with the Jewish National Fund and the Palestine Conservatoire of Music at Jerusalem.

Harriet Cohen was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1938.

Harriet Cohen was made Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium in 1947 and received the Order of the White Lion of Czechoslovakia that same year.

Harriet Cohen was made a Cavalier of the Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil in 1954 and was made a Freeman of the City of London in the same year.

Harriet Cohen received the Stella Della Solidarieta Italiana in 1955.

In 1958 Harriet Cohen was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland for her services to Finnish music.

Harriet Cohen was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1959 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.

Harriet Cohen met the American journalist Dorothy Thompson in 1930 on her first tour of America, a tour which took in New York, Washington and the Library of Congress and Chicago, thus finally establishing a name for herself on the International stage.

In 1933 Harriet Cohen travelled to Vienna to play a number of concerts, staying with Dorothy Thompson.

Harriet Cohen was profoundly moved by the plight of refugees, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who were pouring into the city from Germany.

Thompson and Harriet Cohen were to correspond about the plight of Jewish refugees in Austria and Germany.

Harriet Cohen was then able to pass on information from Thompson directly to the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, who was at this time her intimate friend.

Harriet Cohen met Thompson every time she went to America thereafter.

From 1933 Harriet Cohen committed herself to work in Britain and the United States on behalf of refugees.

Harriet Cohen had met Albert Einstein in Germany in 1929 when she had afternoon tea at his house.

Harriet Cohen kept her friendship with Einstein even after he had fled Germany in 1933.

In 1934, after Einstein moved to the United States, Harriet Cohen did finally play that duet concert with Einstein to raise funds to bring Jewish scientists out of Nazi Germany.

Harriet Cohen's 1939 visit to Palestine extended her reputation there both as a concert pianist and politically.

Harriet Cohen argued with British and Jewish officials to try to get Jewish refugees admitted on ships from Nazi Germany, once almost precipitating an International incident.

Harriet Cohen believed passionately in a Jewish homeland but with justice to the Arab Palestinians.

Harriet Cohen survived two assassination attempts during her trip to Palestine.

Not only was Harriet Cohen bringing British music to the USSR by playing pieces by Vaughan Williams, Bax, Bliss and Ireland, she performed Shostakovich's Preludes, Kabalevsky's Sonatina, and the Soviet premiere of Leonid Polovinkin's Suite from manuscript.

Harriet Cohen possibly became pregnant with Bax's child in 1919 but if she did, she lost the child in an early miscarriage.

Harriet Cohen's recently published letters reveal the turbulence and anguish of the relationship.

Harriet Cohen always claimed that the long-standing affair denied her becoming a "Dame", but this is not substantiated.

Harriet Cohen probably expected to finally marry Bax after an affair that had now lasted 30 years.

When Bax died on 3 October 1953, Harriet Cohen was deeply affected by his death.

Harriet Cohen's will bequeathed half of his interest from his literary and musical compositions to Cohen for life, and half to Mary Gleaves.

Harriet Cohen became close to MacDonald during the period when he was Prime Minister from 1929 to 1935, at a time of economic instability and depression which saw the rise of Nazism and Fascism in Europe.

Certainly many people did believe they were lovers and Harriet Cohen was often referred to as "the old man's darling".

Harriet Cohen was close to Max Beaverbrook, the founder of Express newspapers and an important entrepreneur of the day.

Harriet Cohen was introduced to the business tycoon Max Beaverbrook by Arnold Bennett in 1923.

Beaverbrook was instantly charmed by Harriet Cohen and invited her to dine regularly with him from 1923 and through him met Lord Rothermere and Lloyd George.

Beaverbrook and Harriet Cohen often met at her house, as noted in her autobiography A Bundle of Time.

Harriet Cohen was besotted with her in his own way and showered her regularly with a hundred or more roses.

Harriet Cohen was a regular visitor to her home and often attended Cohen's little parties that she held for her friends.

Harriet Cohen loved entertaining and inviting famous and prominent people.

Harriet Cohen premiered Vaughan Williams' "Hymn Tune Prelude" in 1930 which he dedicated to her.

Harriet Cohen later introduced the piece throughout Europe during her concert tours.

Harriet Cohen was given the exclusive right to play the piece for a period of time.

Harriet Cohen first played for Edward Elgar in 1914 at a party when she was 18.

In 1933 Harriet Cohen organised a concert in his honour under the patronage of the King and Queen.

Harriet Cohen is highly likely to have been one of these, as various letters from her private collection and interviews suggest.

Harriet Cohen had a magnetic personality and beauty which Wells found irresistible.

Harriet Cohen told Lawrence that they would have to meet secretly.

Nonetheless, Lawrence and Harriet Cohen remained good friends and were regularly seeing each other as least as part of a group of friends up until his death.

Harriet Cohen was introduced to William Walton in 1923 by Arnold Bennett.

Harriet Cohen wrote that the irritation they often felt for each other did not lessen the underlying affection.

Harriet Cohen championed Walton's music both at home and abroad especially in the late 1920s and early '30s.

Harriet Cohen was devastated on Bennett's sudden death from typhoid fever on 27 March 1931.

Harriet Cohen had spoken to him only a few days earlier, when he had told her how unwell he was feeling.

Harriet Cohen had guided her when she was in her 20s when her reputation and fame was growing both at home and abroad.

Harriet Cohen was portrayed by Glenda Jackson in the 1992 Ken Russell film The Secret Life of Arnold Bax.

Dearest Tania, a words-and-music programme telling the story of Harriet Cohen, written by Duncan Honeybourne, premiered in 2006, performed with actress Louisa Clein.