Born in Bexhill-on-Sea, Feb 20, 1921
Died in Eastbourne, Feb 23, 1999
- Gipps was a child prodigy: she began her music studies at age 3 (at the Bexhill School of Music, her mother was its principal) and her first composition was published when she was 8 years old.
- Gipps studied composition with Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music. She also studied oboe and piano there.
- Gipps became a trailblazing conductor in Britain, conducting the City of Birmingham Choir and guest conducting ensembles like the Pro Arte Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. When professional appointments were scarce because of her gender, she founded her own orchestras: the London Repertoire Orchestra and the Chanticleer Orchestra.
- Gipps served as a professor of music at Trinity College of Music and the RCM, and served as chair of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain.1
Biography and partial works list from the British Music Collection
Sources
- Jill Halstead, Lewis Foreman, and J.N.F. Laurie-Beckett, “Gipps, Ruth,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 12, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000011199.