Amaryllis Fleming

Amaryllis Marie-Louise Fleming (10 December 1925 – 27 July 1999) was a British cello performer and teacher.

Fleming was born in 1925, believed to be in Switzerland. She was the illegitimate daughter of the painter Augustus John by his mistress Eve Fleming, mother of the writers Peter Fleming and Ian Fleming by her late husband, although most of her life she was raised as the adopted daughter of Eve Fleming as a pretence to hide her illegitimacy and only discovered her true parentage when she was in her twenties.

She went away to school at Downe House in Berkshire, but went up to London every three weeks for cello lessons with John Snowden. In 1943 she won a scholarship to study full-time with Ivor James at the Royal College of Music. She later studied at times under Gaspar Cassadó, Enrico Mainardi, Pablo Casals, Guilhermina Suggia and Pierre Fournier.

She established herself as a performer throughout the 1950s, winning the prestigious Queen's Prize in 1952, making her debut the following year at the Proms, the annual classical music series at London's Royal Albert Hall, and playing with notable musicians throughout Europe.

Her career was overshadowed by the rise of Jacqueline du Pré in the 1960s and she concentrated on chamber music, being especially known for the Fleming Trio with pianist Bernard Roberts and violinist Manoug Parikian.

She also became a pioneer of baroque cello music and "ground-breakingly, she became the first person this century to play Bach's Sixth suite in the manner its composer had intended." At times she owned cellos by Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari.

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