[1] At age 12, she gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where she later studied piano with Cyril Smith and won the Hopkinson Gold Medal, graduating in 1939.

Initially she was a station pianist, presented educational programmes for children, and produced BBC LPs, including one with Spike Milligan.

Ethnomusicological subjects have always been her interest: One of her first BBC programmes was on music making at shepherds' festivals in Asturias, Spain, produced with her own field recordings.

In this role, in 1961, she was responsible for the restoration and restringing of the so-called "Brian Boru harp" in Trinity College Dublin, in association with the British Museum.

[5] Rimmer and Harrison together developed an increasing interest in ethnomusicology, with common research trips to Mexico, Central and South America, making recordings of the music-making of indigenous people.