14 Facts About Lena Wood

Lena Wood was a pupil of Lionel Tertis, performing and broadcasting with a number of ensembles from the 1920s to the 1950s.

Lena Wood was born in Croston, near Chorley, Lancashire, the only surviving child of Colin Wood, a marine engineer and his wife Elizabeth.

The family moved to Stourbridge in the early 1900s, where in 1930 Lena married Frank Clifford, but continued to use her family name of Wood.

Lena Wood was a pupil of the Dutch violinist Max Mossel at the Midland Institute and later a viola pupil of Lionel Tertis at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she received her Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music in December 1919.

Lena Wood was a recitalist on the violin as well as the viola and performed with the tenor, Arthur Jordan in 1920.

In December 1931, Wood was playing with the Alex Cohen Quartet when they gave the first broadcast performance of Walford Davies's Peter Pan Suite.

In 1934 Lena Wood gave the first performance of Alfred Wall's Ballade for Viola and String Orchestra with the Birmingham Philharmonic String Orchestra, in Birmingham.

The Musical Times critic remarked on Lena Wood's fine playing of the Ballade for Viola and String Orchestra and for her ensemble playing during the Introduction and Allegro by Elgar.

In May 1935 Lena Wood performed the Handel-Casadeus Viola Concerto with the Birmingham Philharmonic String Orchestra under Johan Hock.

In 1939 Lena Wood played the Elgar Cello Concerto, arranged for viola by Lionel Tertis, with the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra.

In Birmingham in 1941, Lena Wood gave the first performance of Ruth Gipps' Jane Grey Op.

Lena Wood played with a number of ensembles during her performing career including the Birmingham Quartet, the Midlands Wireless Orchestra, the Alex Cohen Quartet, the London Pianoforte Quartet, the Ionian String Quartet, the Catterall String Quartet, Johan Hoch's Chamber Orchestra and the Clifford Quintet which she founded.

Lena Wood taught at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and was a formidable teacher.

Lena Wood's name is remembered in the Musicians' Book of Remembrance in the Musician's Chapel within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in London.