Ethel Barns

She was born in London and entered the Royal Academy of Music at as a teenager, where she studied with Emile Sauret for violin, Ebenezer Prout for composition and Frederick Westlake for piano.

[2] In 1887, at the age of thirteen, Barns enrolled in the Royal Academy of Music and began taking violin lessons with Emile Sauret.

[7][8][4] One of her earliest public performances took place in 1890 at the Royal Academy's St. James's Hall in a concert that featured her playing two movements from Louis Spohr's violin concerto.

At this point in Barns’ early career, she had proved herself a “versatile musician” by serving as a regular violinist having played pieces by Gabriel Fauré and Martin Sarasaten and performing works such as Beethoven piano concerto.

[2] Barns was well sought-after and performed hers and others works in concert halls across London, including the first season of the Henry Wood Proms in 1895[9] and Crystal Palace in 1896.

1 in D Minor (which went unpublished) at Steinway Hall, a reviewer compared hers to the works of Edvard Grieg, Anton Rubinstein, and Johannes Brahms.

Between the years of 1907 and 1928, Schott published at least 35 works composed by Barns, including Chant Elegiaque (1907), Hindoo Lament (1907), Idylle Pastorale (1909), and even Eight Pieces (1910), the collection for education use.