Ernest Element

Ernest Element was a British musician.

Ernest Element was born on 5 January 1909 in Wolverhampton and educated at Ocker Hill School, Dudley. He studied at Birmingham School of Music with Arthur Hytch and later with Paul Beard, Henry Holst and Carl Flesch, he was awarded the Carl Flesch prize. He was viewed as the Eminent quartet leader and tutored many pupils including Howard Davis who went on to lead his own quartet.

He played the Elgar Violin Concerto in the old BSM buildings to Elgar himself.

With Herbert Downes he played Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor at the Students' Twenty-Eighth Annual Orchestral and Vocal Concert in Birmingham Town Hall on Wednesday 12 June 1929.

He was deputy leader of the BBC Midland Orchestra and was offered the deputy leadership of the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. He declined and became leader of the .

For nine years he was a member of the Philharmonia String Quartet with Henry Holst, Herbert Downes and Anthony Pini. The Quartet recorded, travelled frequently and were the first musicians to venture behind the Iron Curtain after the war, playing in the British Embassy in Prague in 1947. William Walton accompanied them.

Musicians from the BBC Midland Orchestra were posted to regional orchestras after the outbreak of war and he was moved to Manchester and played with the BBC Northern and Halle Orchestras, he also joined the Lawrence Turner quartet.

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