Shore studied at the Royal College of Music from 1912, with Sir Walter Alcock (organ) and Thomas Dunhill (composition), but his time there was interrupted by the war.
[1] Returning after 1918 with an injured right hand - he had lost two fingers[2] - Shore focused on viola playing rather than the organ, becoming a pupil of Arthur Bent, and subsequently Lionel Tertis.
There is an HMV Treasury recording of a performance of Elgar's Introduction and Allegro with the orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult with Shore as part of the solo quartet.
[11] By 1937 Tertis was finding he could no longer play to the standards he set himself, so he sold his beloved 1717 Montagnana viola to Shore.
[3] Shortly after the end of the war he retired from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, took on a professorship at the Royal College of Music, and from 1948 acted as a staff inspector of schools.
The Sons of Light, a cantata for chorus and orchestra (1950) by Vaughan Williams, was commissioned by the Schools Music Association where Shore was an inspector there.
[18] The winner of the competition, the 19 year old American Paul Neubauer, gave the first public performance in 1981 as part of his prize.