Rosabel Watson

Rosabel Grace Watson (September 1865 – 5 October 1959) was an English conductor, theatre music director and all-round musician.

With her friend the pianist Anne Mukle she worked on philanthropic music and drama productions in one of the poorest areas of London, Bethnal Green.

Henry Wood was president of the school and lectures were given there by Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

[4] In her years on the concert circuit she had already worked with many of the leading female musicians of the day, including violinist Kitty Althaus, oboist Leila Bull, the Chaplin sisters (Nellie, Kate and Mabel), Clara Farrow (horn), Catherine Fidler (trumpet), Anna Lang (violin), Constance Moss (trombone), the Mukle sisters (Lilian, Anne and May), Lucy Mumby (bassoon), flautists Anita Paggi and Edith Penville, Beatrice Pettit (cornet) and clarinetist Frances Thomas.

[2][5] The orchestra toured nationally - including engagements at the Royal Albert Hall (1896) and in Dublin, and also played at many suffrage gatherings.

[7] She frequently worked in Stratford at the Royal Shakespeare Company as a music director, from 1916 up until around 1944, often with Donald Wolfit and also with William Poel and the Elizabethan Stage Society.