Ruth Gipps (February 20, 1921-February 21, 1999) was an English composer, oboist, pianist, conductor, and educator. Her tremendous compositional output includes five symphonies, seven concerto, and a vast number of chamber and choral works.
Gipps was a child prodigy, winning competitions in performance ad composition when she was still quite small. She attended the Royal College of music, studying oboe with Léon Goossens, piano with Arthur Alexander, and composition with Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams. She became the youngest British woman to earn a doctorate in music at just 26.
As she was both a composer and oboist, what better work to learn more about Gipps than her Oboe Concerto? Have a listen below: