Genres Classical Instruments Viola Died 1976 Instrument Viola | Occupation(s) Performer and teacher Associated acts Zorian Quartet Genre Classical music | |
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Winifred Copperwheat (1905, London – 1976, London) was an English classical viola player and teacher.
She studied under English violist Lionel Tertis at the Royal Academy of Music. Tertis later said after one of her recitals, that she had "played like an angel".
As soloist, she gave the premiere performances of several works, including:
She played in several chamber music combinations; including the Zorian String Quartet, of which she was a founding member. She participated in several premiere performances and recordings by the Zorian Quartet.
For many years, she taught viola at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1971, she pointed out to musicologist and violist Martin Jarvis, one of her students, some problems with the published editions of the Bach cello suites. That observation eventually led to his hypothesis that they had been composed by Anna Magdalena Bach and not, as commonly supposed, by her husband Johann Sebastian Bach.
She wrote a book designed for beginning viola students, The First-Year Viola Method.
Her name is inscribed in the Book of Remembrance in the Musicians' Chapel at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, London.