RITA DAWKINS
To our great sadness, Rita Dawkins passed away on Sunday 16th March 2014 about 18 days after a severe stroke.
Rita Dawkins showed an exceptional musical talent from an early age. She studied the piano and violin at the Royal Academy of Music, gained several prizes for piano and was awarded a scholarship to study piano accompaniment.
Later she participated in piano masterclasses with Carlo Zecchi (a pupil of Busoni and Artur Schnabel) in Salzburg, and Guido Agosti in Siena (also a student of Busoni and Professor of piano the Accademia Chigiana in Siena), and was the official accompanist for the cello classes given by Maurice Eisenburg in Portugal.
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Although Rita enjoyed performing her real calling was as an outstanding teacher, a job that she loved. The region is littered with people who have enjoyed an enriched life because of Rita’s teaching. Her pupils have ranged from 3 to 90 years of age, and she took the same sensitive and creative approach to pupils of all levels of ability. For some time she taught talented pianists to achieve performance standard through her classes at Rugby FE College. Her passion for music and for developing the talents of young people were also expressed through her work on the committee of the Sir Charles Barratt Memorial Foundation which made awards to help young people in Coventry to extend their musical education.
Rita also played a huge part in local music making as a regular member of 4 local orchestras, and as a performer of chamber music both as a pianist and on the violin. The Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra, the Leamington Chamber Orchestra and the Oriflamme orchestra have all benefitted from Rita’s contribution in recent years, but it was in the Beauchamp Sinfonietta that she made her most substantial impact. The first concert for which Rita was named as leader of the Beauchamp was on Saturday, 13th December 1986 - a performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio presented by the Stour Singers. She then was a regular leader of the orchestra from a St Valentine’s night concert in 1987 until she handed the responsibility over to our current leader in 2008. As leader, she not only led the orchestral performances, and played solos with the orchestra but she also recruited players who could blend together to achieve the highest standards of performance. For most string players, Rita was the Beauchamp Sinfonietta for these years.
She is now widely mourned throughout the local musical community and consideration is being given to a memorial concert that will commemorate the love, and respect in which she and her late husband John, a horn player, are held. This love reflects that in her music, Rita expressed a humanity and sensitivity that we all knew from the quality of her friendship, her integrity and warmth, and her sense of fun. We feel fortunate to have known Rita.
To our great sadness, Rita Dawkins passed away on Sunday 16th March 2014 about 18 days after a severe stroke.
Rita Dawkins showed an exceptional musical talent from an early age. She studied the piano and violin at the Royal Academy of Music, gained several prizes for piano and was awarded a scholarship to study piano accompaniment.
Later she participated in piano masterclasses with Carlo Zecchi (a pupil of Busoni and Artur Schnabel) in Salzburg, and Guido Agosti in Siena (also a student of Busoni and Professor of piano the Accademia Chigiana in Siena), and was the official accompanist for the cello classes given by Maurice Eisenburg in Portugal.
.
Although Rita enjoyed performing her real calling was as an outstanding teacher, a job that she loved. The region is littered with people who have enjoyed an enriched life because of Rita’s teaching. Her pupils have ranged from 3 to 90 years of age, and she took the same sensitive and creative approach to pupils of all levels of ability. For some time she taught talented pianists to achieve performance standard through her classes at Rugby FE College. Her passion for music and for developing the talents of young people were also expressed through her work on the committee of the Sir Charles Barratt Memorial Foundation which made awards to help young people in Coventry to extend their musical education.
Rita also played a huge part in local music making as a regular member of 4 local orchestras, and as a performer of chamber music both as a pianist and on the violin. The Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra, the Leamington Chamber Orchestra and the Oriflamme orchestra have all benefitted from Rita’s contribution in recent years, but it was in the Beauchamp Sinfonietta that she made her most substantial impact. The first concert for which Rita was named as leader of the Beauchamp was on Saturday, 13th December 1986 - a performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio presented by the Stour Singers. She then was a regular leader of the orchestra from a St Valentine’s night concert in 1987 until she handed the responsibility over to our current leader in 2008. As leader, she not only led the orchestral performances, and played solos with the orchestra but she also recruited players who could blend together to achieve the highest standards of performance. For most string players, Rita was the Beauchamp Sinfonietta for these years.
She is now widely mourned throughout the local musical community and consideration is being given to a memorial concert that will commemorate the love, and respect in which she and her late husband John, a horn player, are held. This love reflects that in her music, Rita expressed a humanity and sensitivity that we all knew from the quality of her friendship, her integrity and warmth, and her sense of fun. We feel fortunate to have known Rita.
