Leonard Hirsch FRMCM, FRCM,[1] (19 December 1902 – 4 January 1995) was a British violinist, conductor and professor.
His father, Maurice Hirschowitz, a draper, was from Friedrichstadt, Courland in the Pale of Settlement, Russia.
[3] Hirsch attended The High School[4] in Dublin and received early instrumental tuition from a local teacher.
[9] Hirsch moved from Manchester to London in 1936, where he became leader and occasional conductor of the BBC Empire Orchestra from 1937 until its disbandment in 1939 at the outbreak of the second world war.
[15] In 1948 he led the Philharmonia, conducted by Muir Mathieson, in a recording of Arnold Bax's 1948 soundtrack score for the film Oliver Twist.
[19] He coached the string section of the National Youth Orchestra from 1948 to 1966,[20] working with Ruth Railton, who had founded it in 1947.
[24] Eric Fogg's Third String Quartet, which remains unpublished, was written in 1929 specially for Hirsch.