Elizabeth Maconchy

Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy Le Fanu DBE (19 March 1907 – 11 November 1994) was an English composer of Irish heritage.

Maconchy was born in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, and grew up in the English and Irish countryside. She enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London at the age of sixteen studying under Charles Wood and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

In 1932, Maconchy developed tuberculosis and moved from London to Kent.

In 1930, Maconchy married William LeFanu with whom she later had two daughters. Her first daughter, Elizabeth Anna LeFanu, was born in 1939, and her second daughter, Nicola LeFanu, was born in 1947.

Maconchy's cycle of thirteen string quartets, which span the years 1932 to 1984, are regarded by many as the peak of her musical achievements.

In 1933, Maconchy's quintet for oboe and strings won a prize in the London Daily Telegraph Chamber Music Competition, and was recorded by Helen Gaskel with the Griller Quartet soon afterwards on HMV Records.

In 1959, Maconchy chaired the Composers' Guild of Great Britain, the first woman to do so. In 1960, she was awarded the Cobbett Medal for chamber music. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1977, and made Dame Commander (DBE) in 1987.

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