Isle of Wight first lady of classical music Kathleen Riddick

Kathleen Riddick’s parents were from long established Island families. Her father Charles was the son of Brading town councillor and mayor, William Riddick.

Her mother, Kate Florence Day of Bonchurch, was a respected pianist who’d studied at Trinity College of Music, London.

It was music that brought Charles and Kate together. He was a keen amateur musician and operatic singer.

Soon after marriage Charles and Kate moved to Epsom, Surrey, to start a jewellery business.

Kathleen Riddick in 1950. Picture by Susan Bixley.

Kathleen was born there in 1907 and started to learn piano, age four, under her mother’s expert tuition.

At age seven, she joined her grandparents Day in Ventnor and attended school in the town. Her early musical ability was nurtured by Gwladys Williams, and she then progressed on to learn cello with Maud Kenny.

In 1915 the County Press reviewed a war-time concert organised by Mrs Day in Ventnor. The packed audience was entertained by locals including “child performer Kathleen Riddick, age eight, who had several encores for her pretty singing and dancing”.

As a talented 14-year-old she won a scholarship to study cello, piano and composition in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD).

The same age, she conducted an Epsom amateur orchestra for the first time.

Kathleen Riddick conducting the Surrey Phil on October 21, 1946, at Municipal Hall Epsom.

In August 1923 Kathleen performed in Ventnor again, winning praise.

Graduating from GSMD, her professional career started. She played cello in the Sarre Piano Trio, with whom she made her first broadcast.

She then joined the IW Symphony Orchestra to perform Saint-Saens’ First Cello Concerto. Her exceptional ability was starting to be recognised.

But her biggest ambition always was to conduct. She was barred from doing this professionally at GSMD, being deemed a male only preserve.

Her chance to realize her dream came in 1937 when she enrolled at the International Summer Conducting Course at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

On her return home, Kathleen formed the London Women’s String Orchestra, the first professional women’s orchestra in Britain.

Kathleen Riddick Ventnor WW1 concert. Kathleen is seated 4th from left with her Cello.

Their initial performance, in May 1938, was acclaimed by critics as an outstanding success.

April, 1939, saw the first of their many radio broadcasts. Kathleen renamed her ensemble, the Riddick Orchestra.

The Second World War saw many male musicians join the armed forces.

In those years the Riddick Orchestra helped fill the BBC airwaves with classical music to sooth the listeners.

The orchestra also toured Britain. They staged concerts for war-weary people eager to hear quality live music.

Kathleen Riddick, County Press advert in May, 1949 Silver Jubilee IW Music Festival - Riddick Orchestra concert.

One such venue was Ryde Town Hall, where her orchestra performed in October 1942 to an appreciative audience with a programme of works by Bach, Vivaldi, Elgar and Greig.

Kathleen won her ‘ground breaking’ moment in 1943 when she was invited to conduct the BBC Orchestra, a first for any woman.

After the war the Riddick Orchestra returned to Ryde Town Hall in April 1946 and May 1949.

The latter was a special performance for the closing night of the newly revived IW Music Festival Week.

This Silver Jubilee occasion was hailed by the County Press as a great success for all contestants, from school children to adult performers alike.

Despite her achievements, she had critics. The famous Sir Thomas Beecham hit this sour note in 1948 when he reportedly said he didn’t approve of women in orchestras and “much credit for bringing women into the limelight goes to Kathleen Riddick.

Kathleen Riddick featured in Radio Times in February, 1962.

“During the last six years she’s proved the public doesn’t like unadulterated femininity in its music.

“Her orchestra only survived financially with an Arts Council grant and in 1944 she bowed to prejudice and took in men players.”

Kathleen’s daughter, Susan, says Beecham totally misunderstood Kathleen.

She said: “She believed in equality for all, not just equality for women. That’s the true reason my mother changed her orchestra to include men.”

In 1951 Kathleen broke through another glass ceiling ­— she became the first woman to conduct an orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, namely, the Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra.

The BBC again put Kathleen centre stage when in 1954 she was the first woman to conduct three orchestras ­— BBC Northern Orchestra, BBC Scottish Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra.

She worked with dozens of distinguished artistes including Jacqueline du Pré and Kathleen Ferrier.

In her family life, Kathleen married George Bixley, a keen amateur musician. She taught music to her daughter and to Surrey schoolchildren.

Kathleen received an OBE for services to music in 1961.

Quite a lifetime of achievements for a woman who, as a little girl dwarfed by her cello, dreamed of one day conducting a big orchestra.

Kathleen died at home in Ashtead, Surrey in 1973. Her musical legacy lives on. Her orchestra, the ‘Surrey Phil’ still performs today.

Her daughter, Susan Bixley-Gilchrist, went into the music profession, becoming a timpani and percussion player and teacher.

Her granddaughter Elizabeth Gilchrist studied music and is a BBC sound engineer. Her grandson Stephen Gilchrist is a professional drummer and examiner for Rock School.

He played at Bestival in 2011 in Graham Coxon’s band.

Kathleen’s extended family still live in Ryde. She is remembered in Ventnor Heritage Centre and IW motorists will recall the name Canning Day of Newport, another of Kathleen’s family connections.

Women who’ve followed in her footsteps owe much to her success.

This ‘first’ lady of classical music deserves to be more widely acknowledged and remembered Wight-wide.