Winifred Roberts

Winifred Florence Roberts was born in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, on November 4 1923. When she was three, her father made her a small violin, and began teaching her. She came to England at the age of six, having already played in public and broadcast. She studied with Dorothea Walenn while at St.Paul's girl school, and subsequently with Antonio Brosa. Later she wan a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, were she worked with Albert Sammons. There she was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal. She was close to Benjamin Britten and was considered for the premiere of his Violin Concerto in 1940, although the honour eventually went to Brosa. In 1946 Winifred Roberts was a finalist at the Long-Thibaud competition in Paris, but already her career had taken off, with concerts around Britain and further afield. Her three visits to the Proms were to play music by Bach. In 1949 she married the harpsicordist Geraint Jones. Under the banner of the Kirckman Concert Society, which Jones founded in 1963 to promote young musicians, Winifred Roberts explored some eclectic repertoire, including a rarely-heard sonata by Busoni at the Wigmore Hall in 1964. On another occasion she recorded for the BBC a little-known sonata by the pianist Arthur Schnabel.By the late 1960s much of her husband’s work was outside London: he was artistic director of the Lake District Festival from 1960 to 1978, director of the Salisbury Festival (1972-77) and ran the Manchester International Organ Festival (1977-78). However, she found fulfilment in teaching at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was known for her engaging smile and great generosity. She performed Bach’s A minor Concerto at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the Geraint Jones Orchestra as recently as 1984, and reluctantly came out of retirement in 1997 to perform with the pianist Stephen Kovacevich in an 80th birthday tribute to her husband. During the 1960s the couple lived in a graceful Queen Anne manor at Little Missenden, near Amersham, where they built a splendid collection of Georgian furniture. But she later confided that she preferred city life.There were no children. Winifred Roberts died September 10 2012