Hugh Maguire
Irish violinist Andrew Hugh Michael Maguire was born in Dublin on 2 August 1926. His father was a schoolteacher with a remarkable gift for music. Hugh began violin lessons at six, and had won all the major Irish music festivals' prizes by the age of twelve. He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London, winning prizes for violin playing and quartet playing. He owed the greatest debt to George Enescu, with whom he studied in Paris for ten months.
He became leader of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Charles Groves in 1952. After a short period as sub-leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he served as leader of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1956 until 1961, brought in as one of a number of youngsters to reshape the orchestra after a bust-up between players and management. During this time he played in various recordings for Antal Doráti, and became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.
In 1962, he handed his LSO job to Eric Gruenberg and became leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra until 1967. He became more involved with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and with chamber groups such as the Allegri Quartet and the Melos Ensemble, and taught at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, as Director of String Studies. He was also professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, artistic director of the Irish Youth Orchestra and violin tutor to the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Hugh Maguire died on 14 June 2013, aged eighty-six.