Frank Merrick CBE (30 April 1886[1]–1981) was an English classical pianist and composer in the early 20th century.
[4] At the age of eleven he was taken to play for the great Polish pianist Paderewski, who suggested he go to Vienna to study with Theodor Leschetizky.
[5] In 1908-9 he toured Australia with the contralto Dame Clara Butt and played with various chamber musicians, most notably Henry Holst.
He dedicated much time to the language and spoke it well; in 1965 he made a recording of some of the Esperanto songs with the well-known mezzo-soprano Sybil Michelow.
His students included David Gow, Michael Garrett, the pianist and teacher Stephen Gosney, Thomas Pitfield, Gordon Green, and Alan Rawsthorne.
[2] Around 1967 he returned to the Victoria Rooms, Clifton, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of his first public recital, as a child, largely reprising the programme he had played at his début.
[9] Merrick is particularly known for winning in 1928 the Columbia Gramophone Company competition to write the remaining movements (scherzo and finale) of Schubert's 8th Symphony.
[11] The original manuscripts of his compositions were donated to CHOMBEC (Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth) and the archives of Bristol University.