29 January - The first performance of Charles Villiers Stanford‘s Clarinet Concerto in A minor takes place in Bournemouth with Charles Draper as soloist, conducted by the composer.[1]
30 January -The first performances of the Sonata for Piano by the London resident Italian composer Alberto Randegger, and Hubert Parry‘s sixth set of English Lyrics (6th Set), are given at St James’ Hall.
26 February - The first performance of Donald Tovey’s Trio for Pianoforte, Violin, and Cor Anglais is given by Tovey, Haydn Wood and Edgar Horton at St James’ Hall.
6 June - Edward Elgar's Dream of Gerontius is finally given its London premiere at Westminster Cathedral, three years after its troubled premiere in Birmingham. By then it had been heard twice in Germany and twice in America. Arthur Johnstone's favourable reviews in The Guardian are generally credited with increasing its popularity.[4]
25 August - The Second Symphony by Cyril Scott is performed for the first time in London at the Proms in London. It was subsequently adapted as the Three Symphonic Dances.[5]
14 October - The Apostles, an oratorio by Edward Elgar, is performed for the first time at the Birmingham Festival.[5]
4 November - The Piano Concerto in A major, op. 15 by Donald Tovey is performed for the first time by the Queen’s Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir Henry Wood, with Tovey as the soloist.[5]
date unknown
Edward Elgar buys Royal Sunbeam bicycles for himself and his wife; he names his bicycle "Mr Phoebus".[6]
Arthur Wood becomes musical director of Terry's Theatre in London and is the city's youngest musical director at 28.[7]
^ a bDibble, Jeremy (2002). Charles Villiers Stanford: Man and Musician. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816383-5.
^The Athenæum, January 24 1903, p.123
^"Cyril Scott". Cyril Scott. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
^Matthew Riley (5 July 2017). British Music and Modernism, 1895-1960. Taylor & Francis. p. 41. ISBN978-1-351-57301-6.
^ a b c dSlonimsky, Nicolas (1994). Music Since 1900, 5th ed. Schirmer.
^Moore, Jerrold N. (1984). Edward Elgar: a Creative Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 323. ISBN0-19-315447-1.
^Philip L Scowcroft. "A Yorkshire Musician - Arthur Wood". MusicWebInternational. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
^Barker, Duncan J. "Mackenzie, Sir Alexander Campbell", Grove Music Online (requires subscription), accessed 27 September 2009
^Dinah Birch; Margaret Drabble (24 September 2009). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. OUP Oxford. p. 909. ISBN978-0-19-280687-1.
^"Arthur Seymour Sullivan, 1842-1900 / by Henry Saxe Wyndham". National Library of Australia catalogue. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
^"Little yellow bird [music] / written & composed by C.W. Murphy & Wm. Hargreaves". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
^Parker, Bernard S. World War I Sheet Music: 9,670 Patriotic Songs Published in the United States, 1914-1920, with More Than 600 Covers Illustrated. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2007. ISBN9780786424931OCLC 71790113
^Stephen Kingsbury. "The Apostles, oratorio for soloists, choruses & orchestra, Op. 49". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
^"The Late Dr. Joseph Parry". The Wilkes-Barre Record. 19 December 1903. p. 19 – via Newspapers.com.
^"A Princess of Kensington". The Edward German Discography. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
^"The School Girl a Hit". The New York Times, 10 May 1903, accessed 13 January 2019
^The Stage, 17 Dec 1903, p. 13 – Original cast list.
^"UK's oldest person, Gladys Hooper, dies aged 113". BBC News. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
^Slominsky, Nicolas; Kuhn, Laura Diane, eds. (2001). "Milford, Robin (Humphrey)". Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (Centennial ed.). New York: Schirmer Books. Retrieved 2018-02-28 – via Encyclopedia.com.
^"Avril Coleridge-Taylor", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; retrieved 26 Jan 2015
^"Lennox Berkeley timeline". Lennox Berkeley Society. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
^Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th Edition, E.B., 1954, page 887.
^Dennis Taylor, Eric Ball: His Life and Music, 1903-1989, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012, p.3
^"Death of Dr. Joseph Parry". The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard. 20 February 1903. p. 6. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
^Who Was Who 1897-1916 gives her date of death as 30 June; the Musical Times obituary gives 28 June
^Field, Christopher D. S. "Oakeley, Sir Herbert Stanley (1830–1903)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35273. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)