Olive Zorian

Olive Nevart Zorian (16 March 1916 in Manchester – 17 May 1965 in London) was an English classical violinist.

She was the youngest daughter of Samuel Hovannes Zorian (1870–1955) and Ada Mary Zorian (died 1965).[Note 1] Samuel was an Armenian hosiery manufacturer and musician from Diyarbakir, Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, who had been imprisoned by the Turkish authorities in the 1890s as a political activist, and who thereafter relocated to Manchester, England.[2][3] Samuel also taught music in Diyarbakir where he and his elder brother Kevork were church organists at Surp Giragos. Later, Kevork and his sons played in their local church, St Chads Church in Romiley, Stockport. The family settled in Manchester and were prominent cotton merchant businessmen. Ada (née Rushton) came from Birmingham.

In the 1920s Samuel and Ada with their sons Deran, Arshen and daughter Olive moved to Lytham St Annes. Ada was a Quaker, and they opened a vegetarian guest house there.

From 1932, she studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music under Arthur Catterall, funded first by a scholarship from the College and later by one from Lancashire County Council of £36 a year.[4] When only 16 years old, she was invited by Sir Henry Wood to play at the Promenade season at the Queens Hall, Manchester. She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music.[5] In 1937, she was awarded as student prize a violin bow made by J & A Beare,[6] the first of many awards and prizes. Also in 1937, a string quartet which consisted of her (violin I), Marjorie Lavers (violin II), Susan Davies (viola) and Vivian Joseph (cello) won the Sir Edward Cooper Prize for ensemble playing.[7]

Olive then studied violin with Georges Enescu in Paris and with Szymon Goldberg in Amsterdam.

In 1938, she was leader (concertmaster) of an orchestra assembled by Rudolph Dolmetsch (1906–42).[8]

She performed five times as soloist at The Proms, in London, 1940–47,[9] at the invitation of Sir Henry Wood. In one of those performances, in 1943, she gave the first performance in England of Saudade for violin and orchestra by South African composer Arnold van Wyk (1916–83).[10]

Olive frequently broadcast on the BBC Home Service during the Second World War.

In 1942, she founded the Zorian String Quartet, in which she played first violin. The other founding members were Marjorie Lavers (violin II), Winifred Copperwheat (1905–76, viola) and Norina Semino (cello).[5][11][12] The quartet gave the premiere performances of, and made the first recordings of, several string quartets by English composers, including Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett, and gave the English premieres of others.[13] The quartet was also famous for its performances of string quartets by Bartok and Bloch, as well as modern music.

Olive recorded the Purcell Fantasia with Britten. Many other recordings featuring her work, as well as music by the Zorian String Quartet, are still available.

When the re-formed Zorian String Quartet diminished its activity, she led the English Opera Group Orchestra 1952–57, including performances at the Aldeburgh Festival. She was a distinguished violinist in the Julian Bream Consort,[13] which was responsible for a successful revival of Elizabethan music. She made recordings with both those groups as well as with the Zorian Quartet. As a soloist she gave numerous recitals, and played concertos with leading British orchestras. In 1961, she was leader of the Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra at the Hoffnung Astronautical Music Festival.[14]

From Olive's letter and diaries she evidently enjoyed the excitement of her professional celebrity status, partying and dining with famous artists. Her written words show exquisite sensitivity and huge humility. A beautiful memory album of 1940 is filled with diary events, thoughts, letters from home, snatches of fitting poetry quotations, notes on visits to the theatre and concerts, and sachets of dried flowers from bouquets or simple garden walks. The train journeys and shared moments with soldiers in the grief of war, together with a simple newspaper cutting about her performance in aid of the Armenian soldiers in France, her apprehension waiting for the air raids, even her tension before performing at the Promenade Concerts, all add poignancy to this record of her life.

In 1985, her former husband John Amis wrote, in his autobiography Amiscellany:

Olive's own playing was not virtuosic, though she could most capably negotiate things like Mozart concertos, the first fiddle-parts of Britten, Bartók and Tippett, as well as Stravinsky's Duo Concertant. Her strongest point was her instinctive musicianship and, above all, her ability to float and spin a line. You can hear the best of her in the old 78 rpm recordings of Britten [namely, his Second String Quartet] and Tippett Second String Quartets and, on LP, the original recordings of Britten's Saint Nicolas and The Turn of the Screw.[13]

In 1948, she married broadcaster and classical music critic John Amis (1922–2013). The marriage was dissolved in 1955,[13] the same year in which her beloved father died. And her dear mother died whilst Olive was herself in hospital in her last illness. She died of cancer in hospital in London in 1965.[2] Her grave is in Southern Cemetery, Manchester.[15] Her name is inscribed in the Book of Remembrance in the Musicians’ Chapel at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, London.[16] A witch hazel tree (hamamelis livia) with a plaque celebrating her life and John Amis' has been planted in memoriam in the front Quadrangle at Somerville College, Oxford University, by their niece, Lyn Robertson, a graduate of the College.

For many years Olive played on a 1721 Gagliano violin, which upon her death was bequeathed to the daughter of Athur Catheral, her former tutor, to whom it originally belonged. Later, a fund in her name was set up to acquire it for the Royal Manchester School of Music for talented students to borrow for a year each. Jonathon Sparey of Cumberland was the first recipient. Two memorial concerts in November 1966 (the first in London on the 23rd, featuring Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Julian Bream, Helen Watts, Manoug Parikian, Norman Del Mar and Harold Lester;[17] the second in Manchester, featuring John Ogdon and his wife Brenda Lucas, Elizabeth Harwood, Rodney Friend and Isobel Flinn) raised more than the necessary amount. The instrument was stolen in 1969 and has not been recovered.[4]

Extract from the Memorial Concert programme:

She made her debut as a solo violinist and in classical concertos her purity of line, clean and sweet tone and musical judgement blended into a balanced poetry that was uncommonly satisfying: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, modern composers, all were honoured by her art. She was a splendid sonata player (there were some delightful recitals with Phyllis Sellick).